Box Score

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After leading for nearly four quarters, the University of South Alabama women's basketball team (21-14) fell to Yale (18-13) in overtime, 76-74, in the semifinals of the Women's Basketball Invitational.
 
Down by four, 75-71, with 18 ticks remaining in overtime, Genesis Perrymond drained a three to pull the Jaguars within one. South sent Yale's Roxy Barahman with 12 seconds left. She made 1-of-2 at the line and Savannah Jones grabbed the rebound to give the Jags possession with a chance to tie or take the lead as they trailed 76-74.
 
After advancing the ball with a timeout, South got off three shots in the final 12 seconds, two by LaNeetra Guillory and one by Perrymond, but all fell short as the Bulldogs took the matchup.
 
Shaforia Kines led a group of six South student-athletes with 14 points on a 4-for-7 shooting night. The sophomore also had seven assists, five rebounds and a pair of steals.
 
Chyna Ellis and Jones each scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds, with the nine boards marking a career-high for Jones. Ellis went 5-of-10 from the field, while all three of Jones's makes from the field came from behind-the-arc.
 
Antoinette Lewis and Candice Williams each dropped 11 points while going 5-of-13 and 5-of-7 from the field, respectively. This was Williams' second game of the season in double-figures and Lewis brought down nine boards.
 
Perrymond rounded out the six Jags in double-figures with 10 points. The senior guard tied a career-high with assists in her final game at South Alabama while collecting five rebounds, rejecting a shot and recording a steal.
 
Guillory and Ellis tied for the team lead with three blocks each.
 
Yale had four players reach double-figures. Jen Berkowitz scored a game-high 19, Alexandra Maund scored 18 of the Bulldogs' 27 bench points and Roxy Barahman recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Maund came into the game averaging three points.

GAME FACTS
- Savannah Jones scored the lone four points for either team at the media timeout of the first quarter, 4:49, as both teams combined to shoot 1-for-14 from the field to that point of the game.
- South Alabama picked up the offense at the end of the first going 6-for-7 to end the opening quarter as they lead 19-8.
- The Jags had a 10-0 run from the end of the first to half-way through the second as an Ellis three-pointer put their lead at 27-8 with 5:52 left in the half.
- Barahman made a jumper at the 3:56 mark of the second to give Yale its first field-goal since the 3:30 mark in the first.
- The Bulldogs ended the first-half on a 10-2 run, with the last basket coming on a layup by Alex Cade with 1:02 remaining, as South led 29-19 at the half.
- In the third, the teams went back-and-forth, but Yale ended the quarter on a 5-0 run as the Jags led 46-42 heading into the fourth quarter.
- South was up by 11 heading into the final two minutes, but Yale ended the fourth on a 13-2 with a Simpson making a three-pointer with 23 seconds left to force overtime.
- Ellis fouled out with 34 seconds left in the fourth.
-In overtime, Yale obtained its first lead, 68-67, with 3:30 left in the extra period.
- Maund made a layup and a free throw as part of an and-one with 1:24 on the clock and didn't trail the rest of the way.
- The Jags outrebounded the Bulldogs 52-47.
- Yale forced 24 turnovers and scored 13 points off those turnovers to South's 12 points off 11 forced turnovers.
- The Bulldogs outscored the Jags on the fast break 26-13.
- South won the paint 26-24.
- Yale made 20-of-29 free-throw attempts as Jags went 10-of-16 from the charity-stripe.
- The Bulldogs had 18 steals to the Jags' five and had 16 more attempts from the field than South Alabama.

NOTES
- The Jags had six players with double-digit points for the first since a 95-61 victory over Southern Mississippi on Nov. 16, 2010.
- Having rejected 254 shots, South led the NCAA in rejected shots.
- With 14 points, Kines concluded the season with double-figures in eight of the last 10 games.
- Ellis ended her career with 338 blocks and 1,247 points, finishing 12th all-time in points in program history.
- With over 40 minutes played, Perrymond set a career-high for most minutes played in a game.
- Lewis finished the season with 10 or more points in seven of the last nine games.
- This was the first time the Jags lost when outrebounding their opponent, winning the previous 14 times.
- The Jags were 12-3 when scoring 70 or more points.
- South finished the season with 21 victories, the most since the 2008-09 team won 21.
- After not playing overtime for the last three-and-a-half seasons the Jags played in overtime three times across the last 11 games.
 
THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler
On the last portion of the game: "We were up five, turned it over and they scored right away. That put them right back in the ballgame. They hit a couple of shots where we fouled them and they were scoring without the clock running down the stretch. We get the ball and don't take care of it and turn it over. We had 24 turnovers and that's the most we've had in a long time. That's the difference in the ballgame right there."
 
On the final play in overtime: "We were trying to run the same thing we did the other night and get the ball inside to Antoinette (Lewis). They took it away, we gave it to LG (LaNeetra Guillory), she drove it and put up a shot. Our kids kept crashing the boards and we had shot opportunity after shot opportunity to send it to a double-overtime. Unfortunately, the ball didn't bounce our way tonight."
 
On the great run this season: "I'm so proud of our kids tonight and everything they did all year long. To get to this point, it's disappointing. Chyna Ellis, who fouled out of the game, really feels bad. We're going to hurt right now, but we need to keep our heads high, look back and reminisce about the good times we had and move forward with our returning players and get better." 
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give

—USA—