Deja Vu Strikes Women's Basketball in Loss at UNCG

GREENSBORO, N.C. - For the second time in three days, a last second shot erased the Georgia Southern Lady Eagles' one-point lead. Natalie Headley provided the heroics this time in the UNCG Spartans 55-54 win on Sunday, their first in over a month, with an offensive put-back.

"It's frustrating," said Head Coach Rusty Cram. "We got out to an 8-2 lead with everything going our way, then we let them back in it by giving up a couple of fast breaks. We gave them the momentum and had to play catch-up ball the rest of the afternoon."

MiMi DuBose (Jefferson, Ga.) sparked a second-half comeback with a season-high 19 points, scoring eight points in an 18-5 run over the final 4:33. The sophomore guard nearly reached double figures in the first half with nine points, but Georgia Southern (5-12, 1-7) shot just 31.0% in the period as a team.

"MiMi is the reason we came back," said Cram. "We had one or two buckets from different people to help during that run, but MiMi drained the threes at the right times and got to the free throw line. We couldn't find anybody else with even a semi-hot hand to put the ball in the hole. I also thought turnovers at the wrong point plagued us once again."

Headley led UNCG (3-13, 2-6), who scored 17 points off of 18 Georgia Southern turnovers, with 10 points in just 15 minutes of work. The bench saw heavy action and outscored the Lady Eagles 27-8 behind Dayshaun Richbow and Breonna Patterson, who combined for 17 points. The Spartans, who shot 36.1% as a team, were boosted by four first-half treys and finished five-for-11 from behind the arc.

DuBose provided GSU's only two three-pointers, and the team finished just 2-of-13 from behind the arc. Meredyth Frye (Fredricksburg, Va.) narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and pulled down eight boards. Janay Wilson (Warner Robins, Ga.) joined her with eight rebounds and scored six points on two-of-nine shooting.

UNCG maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half despite Georgia Southern pulling within five early in the period. Knight made the deficit eight points with less than 10 minutes to go on a layup, but the Spartans quickly pulled ahead by 12 with a 6-2 run. The Lady Eagles were not done, however, and made a late run to pull within two on a Frye layup.

After UNCG went up by four on a pair of free throws from Janae Stevenson with 43 seconds remaining, DuBose responded with a long-range trey from behind the elbow to cut the deficit to one point. The sophomore guard followed that up by completing a coast-to-coast pass from Wilson with a layup, putting GSU on top 54-53 with 14 seconds to play.

Anna Claire Knight (Dublin, Ga.) opened her first career start by scoring the first four points of the game on a pair of field goals, but UNCG quickly erased a six-point lead. The Spartans pulled ahead by 10 points with five minutes to play in the half and held a 28-17 advantage with 4:23 to play. Georgia Southern cut into the deficit before the end of the half with layups from Wilson and Frye but trailed 28-21 at the break.

"We had the opportunity to put that game away in the first half and make them chase us. We are just not playing forty minutes of basketball and that's what's frustrating," said Cram.

The Lady Eagles continue a three-game road swing at the College of Charleston Wednesday. Tip-off from downtown Charleston is set for 7 p.m.

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Category: Women's Basketball

Published on Sunday, 15 January 2012 17:16