Box Score HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Despite double-digit points from Taylor Gault, Kiera Clark and Shanity James, the UALR women's basketball team fell 72-60 against Southern Miss at Reed Green Coliseum on Tuesday night.
The Trojans and Golden Eagles were knotted up late in the first half at 27-27, but from there the home team took over, boosting its lead to seven at halftime and as many as 13 at one point in the second half.
UALR (1-2) worked its way back into the contest and trailed by as few as five midway through the second half, and Southern Miss (3-1) stepped up its game late to pull away.
Gault led all Trojan scorers with 14 while Clark also had 12. Senior Taylor Ford was playing in her 100th career game and wound up with six points, seven rebounds and six assists. And playing just 20 miles from her hometown of Sumrall, Miss., freshman Keanna Keys got a start, cheers from a friendly crowd and three rebounds in a career-high 16 minutes. Clark led UALR in rebounding for the second consecutive game, bringing down eight.
All told, though, the Trojans shot just 36 percent from the field and 63 percent from the free throw line, missing 11 from the charity stripe during the game. Southern Miss was a perfect 22 of 22 from the free-throw line.
UALR was better rebounding than it was in its first game of the year, grabbing 38 rebounds to USM's 39. The Trojans turned the ball over 17 times as well, and those turnovers became 17 points for the Eagles.
Southern Miss got more than half its offense from Tamara Jones, who reached 41 points with a meaningless 3-pointer at the final buzzer. Jamierra Faulkner also scored 13 points for the Golden Eagles.
After trailing by seven at the break, the Trojans got off to a bad start in the second half. A turnover led to a three-point play by the Eagles, and they followed with a 3-pointer on their next possession to take a 42-29 lead and force a UALR timeout.
Southern Miss maintained a double-digit lead for much of the half until Ford made a layup while getting fouled with only two seconds left on the shot clock. She made the ensuing free throw, cutting the USM advantage to 47-39 with 11 minutes to play. Gault hit a shot from downtown on the next UALR possession, and she followed that with a fadeaway jumper when the Trojans had the ball next. That made it a 49-44 game with 10 minutes on the clock, and another Gault jumper brought the Trojans within five.
That was as close as UALR would get, though, as the Golden Eagles continued to silence any momentum the Trojans appeared to be getting. With four minutes left, that five-point lead ballooned back up to 10, and that was too much for UALR to overcome.
The night had a much more promising beginning, as UALR took an 8-2 lead at the first media timeout thanks to a dominant inside presence and a big improvement in rebounding. UALR pulled down five defensive rebounds in the first five minutes and forced three Southern Miss turnovers while James scored six points and freshman Sharde' Collins hit a midrange jumper.
Southern Miss got back into the game after that, narrowing the gap to just one point by the next media timeout as its offense got going. In the game's next segment, though, the Trojans started hitting perimeter shots. Dillard drained the first two 3-pointers of her career back-to-back, and Clark followed with a long two to keep the Trojans ahead 24-21 at the third media timeout.
Collins fouled a Faulkner on a 3-pointer, though, and she made all three free throws to tie the contest at 24-24. The game started going USM's way late in the half as Gault entered for the first time with five minutes left. She drew two quick fouls and made three free throws, then broke up an 8-0 Southern Miss run with a steal and a fast-break layup with less than two minutes left in the half.
Still, that late run by the Eagles gave them cushion on the scoreboard and a 36-29 lead at the break. Dillard led all Trojans with eight points at the half, while James had seven and Clark had six. James would finish the night with 10 points, bringing her streak of consecutive games in double figures to nine.
The Trojans play their first home game in nearly two weeks on Friday when Memphis comes to Little Rock. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
MILESTONES REACHED
· Shanity James picked up her 200th career rebound.
