PENSACOLA, Fl. – After playing some of their best basketball the last two weeks, Southern Miss finally ran into a wall. That wall, so to speak, was Texas State, who the Lady Eagles failed to beat in all three meetings this season as the Lady Bobcats handed USM an 85-57 loss in the semifinals of the Sun Belt tournament.
“They did have our number,” Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. “I felt like this was going to be our game. I think the players felt way too. We made a couple of tweaks that we thought were things that we struggled with. It was disappointing just in our performance with missing shots and turning the ball over.”
An ugly third quarter and the size of Texas State’s backcourt culminated in the Lady Eagles’ defeat. The nail in Southern Miss’ coffin was failing to deliver in the third quarter, as the Lady Eagles entered the outscoring game teams by 164 points in the third quarter. In USM’s wins this season, that figure rises to 232. The Bobcats outscored the Lady Eagles 18-5 in the third quarter.
“With our team, we just didn’t handle it well emotionally at all,” McNelis said. “We missed entire goals. It wasn’t like the rim. We missed the entire goal. I think that emotionally and mentally, we struggled with that. Texas State took every advantage of that.”
Texas State forward Da’Nasia Hood and center Jaeda Reed combined to score 46 points, with Hood posting a double-double of 30 points and 16 rebounds.
“They are just bigger than us,” McNelis said. “We fight for it, and we have Melyia Grayson who can compete with them, but that’s really all we had. We just didn’t have anybody to match their body size. They take one out and put another one.”
Texas State (23-8) jumped out to an 18-8 lead due to the Lady Eagles committing seven of their 17 turnovers in the first quarter. Southern Miss (21-10) cut the deficit to single digits by halftime, but USM’s offense went 1-for-18 from the floor in the third quarter.
“Every time we tried to change the defense or trap a ball screen,” McNelis said. “They took advantage of it. They played with a lot of poise. We did not play well. We started the first quarter turning the ball over seven times.
“I personally felt like that you could see it in our players’ eyes that we were kind of shell shocked that happened to us (in the third quarter). All year long, our third quarter has been our quarter where we have been able to battle and fight. We have outscored almost every opponent that we have played. Maybe there has been one opponent all year that we didn’t dominate the third quarter.”
The only player to score in double digits for Southern Miss was Dominque Davis, who put up 20 points.
The Lady Eagles will now wait to see if they will receive an at-large bid to the WNIT tournament.
“I know the conference has reached out to them,” McNelis said. "I have reached out to them.
“I sent something into the NIT because in the past, the Sun Belt has only gotten one team in the WNIT…I think that’s not the case this year. That should not happen. I know that’s the history of the Sun Belt, and the Sun Belt conference is not the Sun Belt conference of old."
The remaining team slots in the Postseason WNIT will be filled by the top teams available. Any team from Division I will be considered. Teams that are considered for at-large berths must have an overall record of .500 or better. Then evaluating teams for at-large berths, the WNIT committee utilizes at least six statistical ranking systems, such as NCAA NET, RealTime RPI, Massey, Massey BCS, Her Hoop Stats, LRMC, Bennett, and Moore. The committee also looks at the strength of schedule, common opponents, games against other potential invitees, record at home and away, how well a team is currently playing, and key injuries, among other factors.
“This league is deserving of three or four teams being in the NIT,” McNelis said. “I think that the WNIT committee will be selling this league short if they do not at least give us a serious look. I just hope that we would be a multi-bid league for the WNIT.”
The 64-team field will be announced late Sunday evening, March 12, 2023, after the NCAA Tournament is released. The full bracket will be announced on Monday, March 13, 2023. The first round will tip off Wednesday, March 15.
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