The Lady Golden Eagles continued the home action fans have seen since the beginning of the season with the complete domination of Blue Mountain Christian.
Southern Miss poured it on early, opening with a 6-0 run to be broken by a floater from Blue Mountain center, Rebecca Walter. However, that moment did not slow down the Lady Golden Eagles’ momentum at all. Speaking to the team’s momentum, something interesting that Coach Bilderback does is five-woman substitutes. Could that be the method to the madness? Watching Southern Miss women’s basketball substitute players is actually more similar to a hockey line change than any normal basketball substitution.
Combined with the fresh legs and lungs of the team, Blue Mountain simply lacked the size in the paint to keep up. The Lady Golden Eagles’ famed rotation of centers seemed unrivaled when it came to hitting their layups, getting their rebounds and getting blocks. This ultimately resulted in a lot of second chance points for Southern Miss as a backup plan for three pointers not falling, which wasn’t often.
If you thought the three pointers raining down, blocks, rebounds and layups weren’t overwhelming enough for the Lady Toppers, the oppressive defense from Southern Miss hasn’t even come up yet. The Lady Golden Eagles began to truly learn their competition and play the most aggressive defense fans have seen them play this season. Following the shootout against William Carey, the team looked very different defensively.
The Lady Golden Eagles played full court defense, keeping Blue Mountain’s offense honest from the inbound pass. This generated many turnovers and general unease among the Blue Mountain offense.
Foul trouble hurt Blue Mountain badly as well, as Southern Miss took many trips to the free throw line and capitalized time after time.
The Lady Golden Eagles ended the third quarter with 95 points to Blue Mountain’s 27. It was around this time it seemed very likely the Lady Golden Eagles could break the school record for the largest margin of victory of all time, or maybe even the most points scored in a game by a Lady Golden Eagles team. The game ended 113-39 in favor of the Lady Golden Eagles, and they did secure the largest win margin in school history.
Ramiah “Moonie” Augurson got quality minutes. The young freshman finished 7/12 from the field, with two blocks, two steals, two rebounds, and 17 points. What a game for Augurson!
The Lady Golden Eagles will be back in action Thursday, Nov. 13 with their first road test of the Bilderback Era at Jacksonville State.
