A year ago, Southern Miss trailed William Carey by five points at halftime.
It may be hard to remember that first-half performance since the Lady Eagles became the co-regular season champions in the program’s first year in the Sun Belt.
But that wasn’t the case for Domonique Davis, who was named the Sun Belt’s Preseason Player of the Year, as she scored 23 points in Southern Miss’ dominant 88-46 win against William Carey.
“We came into this week prepared for them,” Davis said. “We remembered that. We know what type of talent we are and all the hard work we put in. It’s nothing against them, but we hold ourselves to a standard, and so we definitely remembered that coming into this game.”
Davis’ performance also helped her go over 1,000 points in her career despite it being just her third year at Southern Miss after transferring from LSU.
“Dom’s growth in our program has been amazing,” Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. “I think today is evident of not only her scoring but efficiency across the board.
“Dom wants to compete. That’s the one thing that separates her from other people is the willingness to compete.”
A dominant first quarter is all the Lady Eagles need to put things away early as they used a 13-0 run and scored 18 points off turnovers to go up 30-13. By the end of the game, USM scored 30 points off turnovers and outscored WCU 21-0 on the fastbreak.
Yet the outcome was more expected for Southern Miss because since the end of last year, which featured 21 wins, has drastically raised expectations for the Lady Eagles.
“We return the four leading scorers from last year,” McNelis said. “Those players have an understanding of what it takes to be successful here and what it takes to play here.”
Not including Davis, the other top three returning scorers last year, which consists of Lani Cornfield, Jacorriah Bracey and Meylia Grayson combined for 27 points.
“We remember it and enjoy it,” said Davis on sharing a conference title last year. “But now it’s something that we have to put behind us and focus on that this year again. Once you do it, you want to keep it doing that and build this program up. That should be the standard. The standard should be competing for a championship every year.”
“That core group that we brought back, we know what it felt like to win and be a part of that. Now we want to own that by ourselves.”
At the same time, the Lady Eagles’ newcomers have provided a critical boost with outside shooting. Georgia State transfer Nyla Jean and freshman Morgan Sieper and Ella Blatchford accounted for seven of the team’s nine three-pointers.
“We didn’t have people last year that could consistently shoot a three ball, and now we have a couple that can do that and spread the floor,” McNelis said. “That alone is a game changer.
“You add a host of newcomers that have a high ceiling and a lot of potential. They bring a lot of different things to our team that we didn’t have a year ago. When you mix those groups together and see how they blend, then the expectations have to go higher.”
As for William Carey, it was the first blemish for the season after getting off to a 3-0 start. Leading the Lady Crusaders in scoring was Rose Warren, who transferred from Southern Miss this past offseason, with 13 points.
Southern Miss will return to action at home on Saturday against Akron, while William Carey will travel to play San Antonio, Texas, to face Our Lady of the Lake University.
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