Dreadful offensive performance sinks women’s basketball at Southern Miss

Skipper · February 5, 2016

Clay Massey | Staff Writer

Woeful offense and 26 turnovers got the best of North Texas in a conference clash with the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles, as the Mean Green fell 57-38 in Hattiesburg, MS. North Texas (8-11, 3-6) has now lost four of its last five.

Senior forward Achiel Tac led the way for the Mean Green with 12 points and seven rebounds, but the rest of the offense struggled, helping the Golden Eagles remain undefeated at home.

“We can’t beat anybody with 20 turnovers,” head coach Jalie Mitchell said. “I thought they punished us inside, and I thought that’s where we lost it a little bit. They made a conscious effort to take it inside on us.”

North Texas took a while to get going and never led for the entire game. Candice Adams sparked a 6-0 Mean Green run with her 78th career three-pointer, moving her into 8th all-time on the North Texas career three-point list.

“It’s great to have, but I’m still going to play the game,” Adams said. “I’m not going to worry about that until we accomplish a bigger goal, which is to make it to the tournament.”

The 6-0 Mean Green run put them within five of Southern Miss, but North Texas went cold at the end of the first half, making just one of its last eight field goals. Southern Miss, on the other hand, finished strong to take a 33-23 lead into halftime.

The game only went downhill from there for the Mean Green. North Texas only scored four points in the third quarter, their second worst quarter-mark of the season. The Mean Green shot only 15.4% from the field in the third quarter, taking over six minutes to get on the board. The shooting woes continued into the fourth quarter, as North Texas scored only 15 points in the entire second half.

North Texas also struggled from the free throw line, going 6-15 for 40 percent on the night.

Southern Miss freshman phenom Caitlin Jenkins, a candidate for Conference USA Freshman of the Year, helped widen the margin in the second half, coming out firing for a 12 points in the third and fourth quarters after going after North Texas shut her out in the first half. The Golden Eagles also made the most of North Texas turnovers, with 24 points coming off Mean Green mishaps.

“They’re scoring half their points off our turnovers. So if we cut our turnovers, then maybe it would have been a different game,” Tac said. “We didn’t give ourselves opportunities tonight on the offensive end.”

North Texas returns to action with a Saturday night road contest at Louisiana Tech University. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.

“Hopefully we can make shots,” Mitchell said, “especially lay-ups and free-throws.”

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GrandGreen · February 5, 2016

Mitchell at this time seems to be more interesting in sending messages to the team, than winning games. Strange player decisions at least from the outside.

GMG24 · February 5, 2016

2 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Mitchell at this time seems to be more interesting in sending messages to the team, than winning games. Strange player decisions at least from the outside.

I like it...if you are going to be bad, be bad with kids who are going to do it your way.... don't let them run the team YOU as the HC run the team its their job to get on board or get out.

GrandGreen · February 5, 2016

1 hour ago, GMG24 said:

I like it...if you are going to be bad, be bad with kids who are going to do it your way.... don't let them run the team YOU as the HC run the team its their job to get on board or get out.

Were you here when Shanice Stephens was coach?

The same thing was said defending her coach/player relationships. Petersen was also excellent at running off his best players.

No way, do I think Mitchell is going to have the issues of Stephens or Petersen. I am amazed this team has won the games it has with the current depth and talent level. I just don't think anything should be assumed with a new coach. Having multiple personnel issues maybe a necessary part of getting this program on track or it might be a hint of problems ahead. Ether way, it is to early to tell.

i

Edited February 5, 2016 by GrandGreen

CMJ · February 6, 2016

I think it's too early to tell, but some of the wins she has had makes me think these personnel decision are probably for the best instead of being a coach losing her team.