Southern Miss falls to UAB in C-USA Tournament
|Shirley Hill, Associate Director Athletic Communications
Hattiesburg, Miss. - The Host and (8) UAB relied on a balanced scoring attack to post a wire-to-wire 64-46 victory against short-handed (9) Southern Miss in the second round of the 2016 Conference USA Championships inside Bartow Arena Wednesday morning.
The Blazers (15-15) advance to the quarterfinals to face top-seed UTEP (25-3) at 11 a.m. CT Thursday while the Lady Eagles conclude their campaign at 14-16.
Southern Miss was paced by a game-high 20 points from Brittany Dinkins. Lashyra Cotton pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Whytney Singleton (career-high 16 points) and 2016 C-USA second-team honorees Brittany Winborne (10 points) and Kayla Anderson (10 points) all hit double figures in scoring to lead the way for UAB.
UAB bolted to a 19-14 lead after the first quarter, with Anderson scoring eight points in the stretch. Dinkins used her quickness to get a steal and breakaway lay-up to start the second quarter on a high note for Southern Miss. The Blazers quickly pushed their lead back to seven (23-16, 8:01 second quarter) but Dinkins brought her squad to within four (23-19) after nailing a straight away three pointer.
UAB didn’t flinch, but instead countered by peeling off 10 straight points as part of an eventual 16-2 run wrapped around halftime to take control of the contest. Singleton scored 10 points in the surge, aided by two triples, and Lady Eagles could never recover.
Quick Hitters UAB outrebounded USM, 40-29 … Singleton’s previous career high was eight, also against Southern Miss (2/27/15) ... Winborne recorded her 16th double-double (10 pts, 10 rb) of the season ... Dinkins recorded her 19th double-digit scoring game of the year … Southern Miss drilled eight three pointers, its second-highest total of the year.
Southern Miss Quotes
Southern Miss Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis “Congratulations to UAB, they played very well today. Their seniors were on a mission to make a difference today. We knew the kind of defense that they would throw at us and we worked extremely hard to attack it. But today just wasn’t our day. I’m very proud of our players, and how hard they played. I thought that they played hard and well. I never saw in anyone’s face a quit today, and we faced a lot of obstacles.”
Southern Miss guard Brittanny Dinkins
“My mindset now is that this conference play is a new season. You either leave it all on the floor, or you leave with nothing. I was solely focused on UAB at this point, and just living in the moment today. I was willing to do whatever it took to put my team in position to win.”
