Lady Eagles add another loss to their losing streak

Hattiesburg, Miss. - C-USA’S number-one seeded, UTEP Miners, rolled into town to take on the Lady Eagles Thursday night.

The Lady Eagles were looking for revenge after losing to UTEP a few weeks ago.

Guard, Brittanny Dinkins said, "They're number one. We're just trying to find a way to get back into rhythm and get back on top."

The first possession of the game for the Lady Eagles was a success as Dinkins nailed the corner three.

But after that, UTEP started to take over the game.

Guard, Tajanay Veiga said, "They got a lot of second chance rebounds. They kept rebounding the ball and getting second chance opportunities and when we turned the ball over, they would score. So that gave them a good little lead."

The Lady Eagles had 14 turnovers in just the first half. And 13 of UTEP’s 29 points in the first half, resulted from turnovers.

Head coach, Joye Lee-McNelis said, "You know when your team is struggling a little bit, every little bit of the momentum that you have, you try and bottle it up and build on it, so you can build some confidence."

With the Lady Eagles facing a 29-19 deficit at halftime, Southern Miss were hoping to have a better second half.

And in the fourth quarter, the Lady Eagles stepped their game up by going on a 13-8 run before the two-minute mark, being only down seven.

Dinkins said "anytime there's time on the clock, it's still a lot of time. Until that buzzer goes zero, zero, you know anything is possible at that point. It was very important for us to be poised. Everything at that point had to be right."

Within the final two minutes of the game, the Lady Eagles made some huge plays, which enabled them to be only two points away from winning the game and staying undefeated at home.

But Southern Miss turned the ball over in a pivotal possession, which ultimately led to UTEP beating Southern Miss, 57-54.

Dinkins said "we're just trying to find a way and it seemed like we kind of got it, but we still fell short. So it's like where do we go from here as a team? Now it's time for us individually to look ourselves in the mirror and see what else we can pull out."

The Lady Eagles play UTSA on Saturday where they are hoping to put an end to their three-game losing streak.