Waves crashed and eagles flew over the Billikens last weekend.
The Saint Louis University women’s basketball team dropped to 1-2 in Conference USA play, losing to the Tulane Green Wave 58-50 and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 44-42 last weekend.
In a close game against Tulane last Friday, the Bills, though shooting 90 percent from the free throw line, were unable to pull off the win.
“We made our free throws, we just haven’t been shooting as many as we would like,” said Billiken forward Jana Haywood. The game stayed close throughout the first half and at halftime the score was tied 26-26.
Halfway through the second half, after the Bills’ Harmonie King sank a short jumper, the score was 36-32 with 11:04 left in the game. With 8:26 left, and the score 38-36, the Green Wave went on a 7-0 run.
“We are a more defensive than offensive team, but in order to win we have to score more,” King said.
The Green Wave’s Gwen Slaughter started the run off with a layup and a free throw, then guard Muci Harris followed with two more free throws and finally a layup by D’Aundra Henry finished the run with the new score 45-36 with 4:42 left in the game.
For the Bills, King tried to rally with a layup to make it a 45-38 game, but a free throw and a basket from Tulane gave them their biggest lead of the game 48-38 with 2:07 remaining. From then on, Tulane hit 10 straight free throws to end the game 58-50.
Tulane is ranked second in C-USA in defensive scoring, allowing only 56.9 points per game, while the Bills are ranked third, allowing 57.1 points per game.
“Our defense is always on,” Haywood said. “We usually have a lot of success with that.”
While the Bills forced 27 to their 22 turnovers and shot 90 percent from the free throw line, compared to the 68 percent of the Green Wave, the Bills did not get to the foul line enough to make a big difference. The Billikens shot a season low of 28.8 percent from the field, while Tulane shot only 36.4 percent. King led the Bills with 11 points and forward Angie Lewis had 10 points and eight rebounds. For the Green Wave, Slaughter had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead Tulane.
Coming off the loss in New Orleans, the Bills then lost another conference game against Southern Miss 44-42 last Sunday. With a tied game and 25.6 seconds left, Southern Miss drew a foul, stole the ball and knocked down shots to clinch the win.
“Conference games are always competitive,” Haywood said. “This game came down to one shot and makes you realize how important the little things are.”
The Bills opened the game with a three-pointer, but Southern Miss quickly came back to tie the game. Following the 5-5 tie Southern Miss then took a six-point lead about midway into the half 15-9. With 5:42 remaining in the half and the score 19-13, the Bills went on a 12-6 run to tie the game 25-25 as they went into halftime.
During the second half neither team was able to pull away with any big lead. The Bills had a 6-0 run early in the second half with a 31-27 lead. Southern Miss came back halfway through the second half to regain the lead 34-33.
“If we had penetrated more and been more aggressive we would have scored more,” King said. “We took too many outside shots instead of going inside for the easy bucket.”
King made a three-pointer to tie the game 40-40 with 3:29 remaining and then took the lead when she scored a basket getting the last shot for the Bills and giving them the lead 42-40, for the last time during the game.
The last tie of the game came at the 2:13 mark 42-42 when Southern Miss’ Jessica Woods scored a basket.
Southern Miss’ La’Tasha Summerall drew a foul with 26 seconds remaining and sank both of her free throws giving the lead back to Southern Miss 44-42. The Bills had a chance to get the win, but the three-point shot did not go in, but the Bills still had possession. On the inbound pass, Southern Miss’ Woods stole the ball and dribbled out the clock.
The Bills went 30 percent from the field, while Southern Miss managed slightly better, going 37 percent for the night.
