With Southern Miss trailing by 10 points to start the fourth quarter, it looked as if the Lady Eagles' season was coming to an end.
But looks can be deceiving, as is the case for Melyia Grayson. The Hattiesburg High alum sparked a comeback that led to Southern Miss putting together a dominant fourth quarter to defeat UAB 79-74 and advance to the second round of the WNIT tournament despite having just seven available players.
"They are still trying to figure out how to stop her," said point guard Dominque Davis. "Melyia is great. She is our big teddy bear, but once you hit that button, it's over with. Not a lot of people can go toe to toe with her. When she decides to go and show people who she is as a basketball player, she's great. She's dominant.
"That's what got us going. It gets me hype and our teammates hype. It speaks to the work she puts in every day."
Grayson sparked a 16-2 run in the game's final minutes, with the center putting up 14 points, five rebounds, two blocks, and a steal to help the Lady Eagles outscore UAB 31-16.
"For me it was just wanting to play the game for my teammates and do everything that'll help us come out and get the win to be able to continue in the tournament," Grayson said. "I think it was just me wanting to compete and play the game as long as I can."
Grayson finished the night with a double-double of 22 points and 15 rebounds, as well as three blocks, and was the primary catalyst in helping Southern Miss force UAB to commit eight turnovers in the quarter.
"That Grayson kid just dominated," UAB coach Randy Norton said. "She just dominated in the fourth quarter. She got offensive rebounds posted up, and went to work. She's a great player. We have a lot of respect for her."
SEVEN PLAYERS AVAILABLE
Southern Miss was down to seven dressed-out players on Wednesday due to the transfer portal, which opened on Monday. Of the 13 players listed on Southern Miss' roster, only seven were dressed out for the game. The Lady Eagles had five players enter the transfer portal: Elle Blatchford, Nolani Cornfield, Brikayla Gray, Asjha Leake, and Emma Wallhoff. Notably, Atria Dumas, who was on the bench, had missed the season due to a leg injury.
"It is what it is," Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "The transfer portal opened on Monday, so you have to know who is going to be with you and who is not.
"That's why they did not host the WBI. They didn't have enough teams to fill it. That's how crazy the transfer portal is that you have a whole national tournament that is canceled because teams don't have enough players to compete. You had people drop out of the WBIT because they didn't have enough players to compete. It's a national deal and it's crazy. The NCAA has to get some type of control under."
According to Norton, he anticipated Southern Miss being shorthanded in the matchup.
"It doesn't mean anything," Norton said. "Sometimes it motivates the seven players, and they still had their Big Three."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lady Eagles trailed 11-0 after UAB (18-14) knocked three shots from beyond the arc. Despite the slow start, Southern Miss (19-13) rallied, with Davis scoring 12 of her 26 points of the game in the quarter to narrow the score to 22-18.
The late momentum led to Southern Miss putting together a 20-7 run to tie the game at 24-24 with just under eight minutes left in the second quarter. UAB's three-point shooting kept the Lady Blazers in the game as they knocked down eight shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
However the tie was shortlived with the Lady Blazers going on a 10-0 run, but the Lady Eagles managed to narrow the score to 36-32 by halftime.
"We were in man, and then Melyia's girl decided she wants to start shooting (three-pointers)," McNelis said. "So there is no way that we can get Melyia out on the perimeter. What happened was that it put us in scramble situations. We had to go to our matchup zone, and that's how we made the comeback. They were more stagnate in the matchup zone."
In the second half, Southern Miss trailed 41-40, but UAB put together a 14-3 run to eventually take a 58-48 lead by the end of the third quarter.
Southern Miss didn't fade away at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Lady Eagles going on a 9-2 run to help take a 61-60 lead just before Grayson kickstarted the late run.
"I saw people who haven't even been to a women's game as I was heading out the tunnel," Lee-McNelis said. "That's amazing, and so we got to make this thing 2K Saturday."
Southern Miss will host Murray State on Saturday at 5 p.m.
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