Lady Eagles rally from behind to beat UAB

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Lady Eagles hosted UAB Saturday and defeated the Blazers, 64-59.

However, this game was a tale of two halves.

UAB started off strong; but, Southern Miss rallied from behind in the second half and were able to come out on top.

Head coach, Joye Lee-McNelis said, "What a basketball game. I will tell you it was about as ugly as we could play in that first half. We could not do anything right. I think that was the difference in the game. All the things that went wrong in the first three quarters went right for us in the fourth quarter."

The Lady Eagles stepped up their game in the second half and were efficient, both offensively and defensively.

One of the players who stepped up the most was guard, Brittanny Dinkins.

"I got challenged at halftime by Coach (Lee-McNelis). And so I just rose above it. This is not a team we should lose to. And it starts with us as individuals, as a team. And so as a leader, you want to get things going. So, when she challenged me going into that second half, I just had a different mentality," said Dinkins.

With the game coming down to the wire, guard, Keri Jewett-Giles put the team on her back and made some great plays, enabling her to score six points in just 1.3 seconds.

"That steal I got, I was thinking I did not want to play 20 seconds of defense. So, I just had to get that steal. And the free throws, I had just worked on them. I've been working on them before the game. So, I knew they could come easy," said Jewett-Giles.

Lee-McNelis said "usually you have to learn tough lessons through losses. Today, I think we won and we learned a tough lesson that proper preparation prevents poor performance."

The Lady Eagles will try to win their third game in-a-row Thursday against Marshall.