HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The sixth-seeded University of South Alabama women's basketball team saw its second-half rally attempt come up short Sunday afternoon as third-seeded Western Kentucky held off the Jags late to pick up a 72-67 victory in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Sun Belt Conference Championships held on the Convention Center Court.
"In one of our time outs, I told our team 'You can only control what you do and how hard you fight'", South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. "Our missed shots to open the second half, led to us not giving good energy at the defensive end of the floor. After that, we began to fight and made some plays on defense that led to a couple of big baskets. Over the final 14-15 minutes, we played (Western Kentucky) pretty well. When you give up a 20-0 run to any opponent, it's difficult to come back from that deficit against anyone, let alone a team as good as them. To credit our kids though, they fought their guts out. I just wish we could have made a couple of better decisions near the end of the game."
With the win, WKU improves to 21-9 on the season and will advance to the semifinal round to take on Middle Tennessee - the second seed - on Monday at 2:30 p.m.
The Jaguar women's 2010 campaign comes to a close with the loss, as they end the season with a 15-16 record.
Shakira Nettles led all scorers in the loss, finishing her final game in a Jaguar uniform with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Nettles ends her career in 12th-place on South Alabama's all-time scoring chart with 1,239 points, passing former Jags Whitney Woodard (1,237) and Kathy Bailey (1,235) against the Toppers.
Fellow seniors Shaniece Brunner and Morriah Smith had seven and six points, respectively, in their final collegiate game.
USA's Christian Shelter also ended the afternoon in double figures for USA with 13 points of her own.
Western Kentucky placed four players in double digits, led by Arnika Brown's 17 points and 10 rebounds. Brown also became the 32nd Lady Topper to eclipse the 1,000 point mark for her career against the Jags. Amy McNear and Kenzie Rich each added 13 points, while Dominique Duck had 12.
"We had a really great open and a great finish, but we just had a miserable middle," Pietri said about the game-changing run. "We had some misses (during the first part of the run, which came off long and turned into transition baskets. I can recall two vividly. Both McNear and Duck were able to pierce right down the center of the lane and we had no one pick them up. Those two baskets came in succession and it was kind of a snowball effect after that."
The baskets from McNear and Duck began a pivotal 20-0 run for the Hilltoppers over the final three-and-a-half minutes of the first half and the first 2:34 of the second period that proved to be the difference in the game. During the run, Western Kentucky turned a four-point deficit (24-20) into a 14-point lead at 40-24.
South Alabama came out with a solid defensive effort to open up the game and held the Lady Toppers scoreless over the first five-plus minutes. During that time, USA took advantage jumping out to a 6-0 lead on a Christian Shelter three-pointer and Cylenthia Kennon's conventional three-point play. After a pair of WKU baskets with 13:27 left on the clock, South Alabama took its biggest lead of the half at 15-4 with nine unanswered points.
Smith and Sarda Peterson got the Jag run going with a layup and a three-pointer and then after a pair of free throws from Kennon, Nettles gave South Alabama the 11-point cushion with a layup of her own.
Following the Nettles bucket, Keisha Mosely came off the bench and began a 10-2 run for the Lady Toppers with three-straight buckets. After a layup from Hope Brown, Arnika Brown rebounded her own miss and brought Western Kentucky to within three with an offensive put back with just under seven minutes remaining in the period.
Later in the half with under four minutes to go before the intermission, Nettles hit one of her two opportunities at the charity stripe to give USA a 24-20 advantage, but from that point on, Western Kentucky would quickly grab the momentum and close strong. Over the next minute, McNear and Duck each went coast-to-coast for a pair of easy layups to tie things back up at 24-24. Two possessions later, WkU's Hope Brown gave the Toppers their first lead of the afternoon with a trey from the left corner with just over a minute to play. After a Jaguar miss, Rich found Arnika Brown open in the paint for another layup. After a USA turnover with time winding down, McNear drained a three-pointer just before the halftime horn to send Western Kentucky in to the locker room with a 32-24 lead.
After missing its first six shots from the field, WKU knocked down 15 of its final 22 attempts to finish at 53.6 percent. USA was just 8-for-24 for 33.3 percent.
Coming out of the intermission, Western Kentucky kept the momentum and took its first double-digit lead of the game, opening with eight-straight points to take a 40-27 lead. Just a minute-and-a-half into the final 20 minutes of play, Duck hit a jumper and then stole the ball and raced in for a layup to put the Toppers up 10. Arnika Brown then followed with a basket in the lane and Duck knocked down another jumper to increase WKU's lead to 14.
USA didn't help its cause early on in the final period of play as the Jags opened the half, hitting just one of their first 10 shots. South Alabama would finish the half connecting on 13 of its final 20 attempts.
WKU looked as if it were going to cruise the rest of the way, as the Lady Toppers eventually held its largest lead of the night at 21 on a couple of occasions - the last coming on a McNear jumper with 12 minutes to go.
South Alabama then began to claw its way back. Over the next six minutes, USA narrowed the deficit to 12 on a three-point play from Nettles, but WKU quickly pushed its lead back out to 17 on a trey from McNear and a jumper from Rich within a minute.
For much of the second half, foul problems began to mount for Western Kentucky, as both McNear and Duck fouled out with four minutes remaining. South Alabama took advantage and cut the deficit to 10 (62-52) on a Brunner triple from the right wing at the 3:35 mark.
After a basket from Arnika Brown, USA finally trimmed the deficit to single digits on a three-pointer from Christian Shelter. Despite WKU making a majority of its foul shots late, USA continued to battle and eventually got as close as four twice with under a minute to play, but that is where the Jag rally and season would end, as the Lady Toppers held on to take the five-point victory.
Rich came up big for WKU in the second half, recording all 13 of her points in the final period, including nine during the final five minutes with both McNear and Duck out.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
NOTES: South Alabama senior guard Shakira Nettles ends her career ranked 12th on the Jags' career scoring chart with 1,239 points. The 20-point game was the 61st double figure scoring game of her career and her 12th 20-point outing. WKU's Arnika Brown became the 32nd Lady Topper to eclipse the 1,000 point mark against the Jags. USA is now 1-11 all-time against Western Kentucky in Sun Belt tournament play.
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