Tulane University
Southern Mississippi
Stueber Sends Southern Miss Past Tulane Women, 80-73
Feb 5, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2005
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Green Wave displayed a balanced scoring attack, placing four players in double figures, but it was not enough as the Tulane women's basketball team fell to Southern Miss, 80-73, Saturday at Reed Green Coliseum.
Southern Miss jumped out to a 6-0 lead, and behind 16 first-half points from Shannon Stueber built a lead that reached as high as 14 with just over a minute to play in the half. Tulane cut the advantage to seven, 33-26, on a Nikki Luckhurst three-pointer three seconds before halftime.
"Scoring those points right before halftime, I thought gave us a little momentum," head coach Lisa Stockton said. "But we had four turnovers in the first six possessions of the second half, and that hurt us."
Stueber and the Golden Eagles came out of the locker room and went on an 8-0 run until Dominique Philpots tossed in four consecutive points off of the bench. After hitting a short jumper of her own, Luckhurst found Philpots for the give-and-go to bring the Wave to within seven, 43-36 with 15:40 remaining.
After Southern Miss (8-14, 2-7 C-USA) built its lead back to as many as 14, the Green Wave attempted to make a comeback, behind six points from Simmons and four from Tymeka Moore. A Courtney Simmons jumper with seven seconds left brought Tulane as close as it would get, 73-78.
"We were in a situation with several players battling the flu, that we had to play our younger kids," Stockton said. They can score, but I think they are a little behind on defense. We've got to be a little more disciplined on defense."
Simmons paced Tulane (10-12, 2-7) with career highs in points and steals with 17 and seven, respectively. The Baton Rouge native also dished out six assists to go along with six rebounds for the second consecutive game. Lakethia Hampton finished the night with 16 points, while freshmen Luckhurst and Philpots each scored career highs with 12 points. Senior guard Natalie Walsh also tallied a career high with eight points off of the Green Wave bench.
"Most of the second half we played a lot of our freshmen," Stockton said. "Courtney (Simmons) had a tough task getting players into position, she did some great things. Tonight was a little different type of game."
Stueber led all scorers with 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting on a night where both teams shot over 50 percent from the field, Tulane at 50.9 percent on 27-of 53 shooting and Southern Miss at 52.7 percent (29-of-55).
The Wave, playing without starting point guard and the team's leader in steals D'Aundra Henry, stole the ball 14 times and forced 21 turnovers.
Tulane returns to action Friday, Feb. 11, when South Florida visits Fogelman Arena for a 7 p.m. contest. For fans not able to attend, the game will be broadcast live on the flagship radio station of Tulane women's basketball, WRBH 88.3 FM.
