Lady Eagles pick up 5th straight win

Southern Miss stayed hot Thursday, dropping Rice 79-60 at Reed Green Coliseum.

The victory — which came in coach Joye Lee-McNelis’ return from a two-game absence — is the fifth in a row for the Lady Eagles (19-9, 11-5 C-USA) and the eighth of their last nine. Lee-McNelis was diagnosed with lung cancer two weeks ago and is scheduled to have surgery on March 22.

The Owls’ loss is their first since Feb. 4. The 19-point differential is also the largest of any win for Southern Miss in the 14-game series history versus Rice (16-10, 7-8).

Keri Jewett-Giles and Brittanny Dinkins led the way with 23 and 16 points, respectively. Jewett-Giles’ total tied the career-high for the sophomore guard. Dinkins also added four more steals to her Conference USA-leading total while becoming just the third Southern Miss senior in school history to top 95 steals in a season.

“We went into this game with an attack mentality,” Lee-McNelis said. “Because Rice is very good. But we had a balanced attack led by (Jewett-Giles and Dinkins).”

Senior Lashyra Cotton came on strong late, scoring six of her 14 points in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. While the offense handled its business, the Lady Eagles also took care of things on the defensive end, holding the league’s fourth-best three-point shooting team more than 13 percentage points below its season average. The Lady Owls finished just 6-of-31 from beyond the arc.

Southern Miss, which led 35-30 at halftime, kept its foot on the gas offensively in the third quarter while also putting the clamps down on defense. The Lady Eagles extended their advantage to 54-39 after three quarters.

“That defensive 1-2 punch that (Jewett-Giles and Dinkins) gave us tonight was truly a game-changer,” Lee-McNelis said. “That results in points. It forces them to make tough shots. The turnover differential was truly a difference maker — 24 to 13 turnovers. That’s huge. We did a good job of taking care of the ball today.”

Lee-McNelis’ team will be back in action at 4 p.m. Saturday when it hosts North Texas.