ROME, Ga-- The 5th-seeded University of Mobile women's basketball team ran past 4th-seed Southern Wesleyan University 64-55 in the opening round of the 2011 Fuddruckers Southern States Athletic Conference Basketball Championships presented by Floyd County Wednesday.
Mobile (17-10) advances to face the West's top seed, Belhaven University, Thursday at 7 pm.
The Lady Rams got a starring performance from Alyssa Lane, who poured in a career-high 25 points, including 21 in the 1st half, while Mobile built a 36-29 lead. She went 9-for-13 from the floor and 3-for-5 from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes. Alice Honnery finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 6 blocks, while Allison Michael tallied 10 points and 10 rebounds. Morgan Melancon dished out 8 assists.
In the final half, Honnery and Michael took lead roles. Honnery shot 4-for-6 from the floor and finished with 9 points, 8 boards and 4 blocks in the period, while Michael hit 2-of-5 from 3-point range to tally 9 points.
The Mobile defense clamped down on Southern Wesleyan all game long, holding the Lady Warriors to 26% from the field and 30% from 3-point range. Mobile shot 43% from the floor, including 56% in the opening 20 minutes.
Mobile scored first on a bucket from Honnery and surged ahead to an 11-3 lead 5:01 into the game, as Honnery and Lane scored all 11 points. SWU closed within 11-6, but Mobile scored 7 straight to lead 18-6, sparked by 5 points from Anna Maddox. For the rest of the half, SWU never got closer than 7. Lane tallied 10 points over the final 6:07 of the half.
Over the first 7:17 of the final half, the Lady Rams pushed their lead to 54-37. Michael started the surge with a 3-ball and Honnery and Lane helped finish it by combining for 10 points. From there, SWU began to make a game of it, going on a 15-3 run over the next 8:16, as the Mobile offense went cold, missing six-straight field goal attempts before Honnery put one in at the 7:03 mark. After the Lady Warriors closed the gap to five, Michael answered with a pair of free throws and then sank a 3-pointer to make it 59-52 with 3:03 left. The Mobile defense did the rest, holding SWU without a field goal the rest of the way.