After an opening night victory against the William Carey Crusaders to win the Mayor’s Cup, the Southern Miss Lady Eagles recently welcomed the Akron Zips to Reed Green Coliseum in the first MAC-SBC Challenge game of the year for both teams.
Akron, under new head coach Ryan Gensler, wanted to get back on track following an opening night loss for the Zips where they lost against Oakland College in double overtime, 91-87. As for the Lady Eagles, after a historic milestone taking place for guard Domonique Davis where she reached 1,000 career points, the home team wanted to do nothing more but continue that momentum heading into this game.
Melyia Grayson started the game off for USM with a quick 2. And the Lady Eagles started rolling, as Domonique Davis scored a layup herself. And not too soon after, sharpshooter Morgan Sieper hit a 3 to give the Lady Eagles a 7-0 run to start the game.
After a fadeaway 2 by Davis to make it a 9-0 run, the Zips scored their first points of the game with a layup. But Davis was quick to stop the Zips from getting on a run of their own as she drilled a 3 to make it a 12-2 lead as the Eagles continued to roll in the first, thanks to Davis’ nine points along with Morgan Sieper who shot lights out in the first quarter, only missing one shot on the floor as she had nine points as well.
In the second quarter, the Lady Eagles began to light it up from outside the arc, after a great first quarter by both Sieper and Davis. The two went shot for shot as they drilled 3 pointers one after another to grow the Lady Eagles’ lead even more.
Sieper had the hot hand as she continued to drill 3 pointer after 3 pointer, as the true freshman ended the half with 20 points as she had still only missed one shot. Davis shined as well, finishing with 18 points at the half.
In the second half, while the Zips got out to a good start in the 3rd quarter, going on a 8-2 run before a Lady Eagles timeout. That timeout woke the Lady Eagles as they went on a 11-0 run, with Sieper hitting her seventh 3 pointer on the day to etch her name into the history books.
The Lady Eagles finished the 3rd quarter leading 62-41 and continued to flat out fly over the Zips as they were left searching for answers throughout the 4th quarter as the Lady Eagles moved to 2-0 on the new season as they picked up the victory, 77-60. The Lady Eagles are back in action Saturday, November 18th in their first away game of the year against the Lions of North Alabama.
