It was a mini-homecoming victory for Louisiana-Monroe coach Missy Bilderback.
Unfortunately for Southern Miss, Bilderback's win came at its expense, with a second-half collapse by the Lady Eagles leading to a 70-58 loss to ULM on Saturday.
Bilderback, an alumnus of Southern Miss, has compiled a record of 198-33 in eight years at Jones College in Ellisville and took the Bobcats to the NJCAA Final Four. In her first year leading at ULM, Bilderback has carried that success over as the Lady Warhawks now hold a 13-5 overall record and 5-2 in Sun Belt action.
"Missy went in there, she revamped the program," Southern Miss head coach Joy Lee-McNelis said. "She got three players immediately that played for her at Jones... She's done a heck of a job and I respect everything that she has gotten done there."
As for Southern Miss, the loss ends a two-game winning streak with the Lady Eagles falling to 9-8 and 2-5 in conference Play.
"We played really well up until the third quarter," McNelis said. "Really, only about half of the game did we play very well."
The Lady Eagles were plagued with turnovers early on as they committed nine of the 13 in the first half.
In the first quarter, the Lady Eagles slightly outshot the Lady Warhawks 36% to 33% but still trailed 13-8 after Sania Wells nailed a long-distance three-pointer as time expired. The turnover plague killed the Lady Eagles in the first quarter with eight turnovers, leading to eight points for the Lady Warhawks.
"It was terrible," McNelis said. "I mean I think we had six in the first, then two or one in the third. Again, that's lackadaisical and not being locked in. That's something that's our job, that we have got to do a better job of."
However, Southern Miss seemed like a completely different team in the second quarter after outshooting ULM while only committing one turnover. This led to the Lady Eagles outscoring the Lady Warhawks by seven and taking a two-point lead into the locker room at 34-32.
Dominique Davis had ten points for the Lady Eagles at the half, with Lani Cornfield leading the team in rebounding with five.
Yet the third quarter mirrored the first quarter, with the defense shining the most. However, the ULM offense finally started to get going towards the end of the third, while the Lady Eagle offense did not after only scoring four points in the quarter.
"One of the worst shooting performances we've had in quite some time," McNelis said. "And again, the maturity of our team is not just when we can't shoot the ball. It really affects us in every other aspect of the game. And that's very unfortunate. You know, you have to give credit to ULM. They played their tails off."
ULM's shooting performance was aided by its performance from the three-point line. The Lady Warhawks went 8-for-20, with USM shooting 2 of 18.
Southern Miss had an advantage against the Lady Warhawks with their size, but Melyia Greyson got in foul trouble late in the third quarter. The foul trouble held Grayson to 10 points and five rebounds, who just a game earlier posted a career-high of 19 rebounds. To add to USM's issues, the Lady Eagles struggled to stop Lauren Gross, who transferred from Southern Miss. Gross finished with 11 points for the Lady Warhawks.
"When Melyia got in foul trouble and goes to the bench, then it's a wash," McNelis said. "Our advantage was Melyia, and if she had played like she did on Thursday night… it's not a ball game."
Southern Miss will now go on the road to face Troy on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
