University of Georgia Athletics
Lady Bulldogs Host Southern Miss
November 30, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2010
Georgia vs. Southern Miss Game Notes 
Lady Bulldog Basketball Game Notes
Georgia vs. Southern Miss
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (AM 960 in Athens)
The basics
The No. 21-ranked Georgia Lady Bulldogs return to the friendly confines of historic Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday night to host Southern Miss at 7 p.m.
Southern Miss arrives in Athens with a 3-2 record. The Lady Eagles pushed No. 9 Kentucky last weekend in the championship game of their own Thanksgiving tournament. USM trailed by only five points at halftime before falling, 79-60.
"Southern Miss is an exceptionally quick basketball team," Andy Landers said. "They impress me with their ability to run the basketball and the tempo that they establish on both ends of the floor. They are certainly quicker than anyone we've played this season. Where they really impress me is how they get the ball out of the basket and inbound it and go. That piece is something I would definitely like for us to do better."
Georgia's weeklong road trip to an unseasonably cool Southern California provided mixed results. The Lady Bulldogs suffered their initial setback of the 2010-11 campaign at Southern Cal but rebounded nicely to secure 22- and 31-point victories over Denver and Loyola Marymount, respectively, en route to winning the Courtyard Marriott Westside LMU Thanksgiving Classic.
At Southern Cal, Georgia failed to capaitalize on an 11-point first-half lead. The Women of Troy built their own double-digit edge in the second stanza and then withstood a trio of Lady Bulldog rallies that closed the gap to two.
"There are a lot of things whether we win or lose this game tonight that we can build on and learn from," Landers said. "To me, and I told the players this after the game, I have to do a better job with our man offenses. After that, each one of them has to take something from this because in many ways, I think we were exposed."
Georgia displayed a balanced attack in dispatching the Pioneers and Lions. Most impressive was a 15-0 run early in the title tilt when six different players combined to hit the seven field goals made during the surge.
"I think they were having fun," Landers said. "They find each other and it's like a machine gun going bam, bam, bam. It happened so quickly and all of a sudden you have four, five, six people who have scored in different ways."
Series history with USM
Georgia owns a 1-0 lead in its series with Southern Miss, securing an 84-55 win in the championship game of the Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic 368 days ago. That scoring output held up as the Lady Bulldogs' most productive of the season.
Jasmine James scored 24 points to lead the Lady Bulldogs. Ashley Houts was tabbed the tournament's MVP after scoring 17 points, dishing out four assists and grabbing six steals in the win. James also earned a spot on the all-tourney team after the freshman led Georgia in scoring for the fifth time in six games.
Anne Marie Armstrong scored what was then a career-high 14 points, nine of those in the first half as the Lady Bulldogs took control, and Porsha Phillips chipped in 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
A three from Houts opened the game's scoring and Armstrong followed by a second triple, James converted on an old-fashioned three-point play and Armstrong and Phillips added additional jumpers as the Lady Bulldogs opened up a 13-2 lead less than five minutes into the contest.
Last time out...
Porsha Phillips' double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds led No. 17 Georgia to a 76-44 win over Loyola Marymount in the championship game of the Courtyard Marriott Los Angeles Westside LMU Thanksgiving Classic last Sunday.
Phillips, who was named the tournament's most valuable player, also dished out a career-high six assists in 25 minutes of playing time. She now has five double-doubles in six games.
"I think she gets better getting better, which we're all very pleased with," Andy Landers said. "She's worked hard to get herself into the position she's playing."
Freshman Khaalidah Miller added a career-high 15 points and Anne Marie Armstrong and Jasmine Hassell chipped in 10 apiece. Hassell, who equaled her career-high with 22 points in the tournament's opening round, also was named to the all-tournament team.
Georgia seized control early. After Cowlings hit a shot-clock-beating three on the Loyola Marymoun's initial possession of the contest, the Lady Bulldogs scored the game's next 15 points. Phillips book-ended the run with a three at the 19:11 mark and a jumper with 14:23 left in the half. All told, six different Georgia players combined to hit seven field goals during the surge.
Georgia expanded the margin to 21 points at the half, outscoring the Lions 11-1 over the final 2:55 of the period to enter the locker room with a 40-19 advantage. The Lady Bulldogs never let LMU closer than 20 points in the second stanza.
Phillips a beast on the boards
Porsha Phillips hauled in a career-high 19 rebounds against Southern Cal.
That tally equaled the ninth-best single-game performance in Georgia history as outlined below and also represented the most by a Lady Bulldog in a single game since Katrina McClain hauled in 22 against Valdosta State in Dec. 1986.
Phillips has notched double-doubles in five of six games during the 2010-11 campaign and is currently averaging a whopping 12.0 rebounds per game.
Though it's still very early in the campaign, the last Lady Bulldog to average a double-double was McClain in 1986-87 when she was the consensus National Player of the Year. McClain averaged 24.9 points and 12.2 boards that season.
All told, Lady Bulldogs have averaged a double-double for a season on seven occasions - McClain in 1986-87 and in 1985-86 (21.3 ppg, 10. rpg); Janet Harris in 1984-85 (20.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg), 1982-83 (20.4 ppg, 11.7 rpg) and 1981-82 (22.1 ppg, 12.4 rpg); Wanda Holloway in 1980-81 (14.1 ppg, 10.6 rpg) and Cynthia Collins in 1979-80 (14.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg).
UGA Single-Game Rebound Leaders
No. Player, Opponent (Date)
24 Katrina McClain, W. Carolina (2/10/86)
23 Janet Harris, S. Carolina (1/30/82)
23 Wanda Holloway, Vanderbilt (2/16/81)
22 Katrina McClain, Valdosta St. (12/4/86)
22 Wanda Holloway, Mercer (2/11/81)
20 Janet Harris, Clemson (2/28/83)
20 Janet Harris, Clemson (12/15/82)
20 Wanda Holloway, Pittsburgh (3/26/81)
19 Porsha Phillips, Southern Cal (11/23/10)
19 Janet Harris, Mercer (2/11/81)
Shooting percentages solid
Georgia is shooting a solid 47.0 percent from the floor as a team this season and has connected on 50 percent or better of its FGAs in four of six games.
That's a relatively stark contrast to a year ago when the Lady Bulldogs struggled to put the ball into the basket. Georgia shot just 38.3 percent during 2009-10 and posted a 50 percent or better field goal percentage only two times in 34 games played.
While virtually every Lady Bulldog is shooting a solid percentage, post players Jasmine Hassell and Tamika Willis have been more than money. The sophomore tandem has hit 50-of-75 FGs, a sizzling 66.7 percent.
Familiar faces in Cali
Former Georgia players Alexis Kendrick and Kendi Taylor visited with the current edition of the Lady Bulldogs in Los Angeles.
Kendrick, an Inglewood native who holds the Lady Bulldog record for career starts, and her mother Alice Jones were at all three of Georgia's games in California and joined a team dinner on Friday evening.
Kendrick was a WBCA and McDonald's All-American at St. Bernard Catholic School who started all 132 games played for the Lady Bulldogs from 2002-06. She helped Georgia compile a 93-39 record during that span, reaching the 2004 "Elite Eight" and the 2003, 2005 and 2006 "Sweet 16s."
Kendrick played some of her best basketball during NCAA Tournament action. She scored 17 points in a 2003 second-round win over No. 23 Rutgers; hit a game-winning baseline jumper with five seconds left in a 66-64 upset of No. 2 Purdue in the 2004 "Sweet 16"; and hit a three from the right corner to give Georgia a 75-74 lead over No. 8 Connecticut in the 2006 "Sweet 16" before Barbara Turner's miraculous turnaround three-pointer with 1.8 seconds remaining.
Kendrick ranks No. 25 among Georgia's career scoring leaders with 1,157 points and also is No. 5 in assists (545) and No. 9 in three-pointers made (144).
Taylor, who was a freshman walk-on on UGA's 1996 NCAA runner-up squad. Kendi, her husband Darryl and daughters Riley and Brooke live five minutes from the LMU campus and attended Saturday's game.
Thankful for success
The Thanksgiving holiday traditionally means a lot of family, turkey and football. The Georgia Lady Bulldogs have their own way of celebrating...travel.
Georgia, like many other teams around the nation, was in action last weekend. The Courtyard Marriott Los Angeles Westside Loyola Marymount Thanksgiving Classic marked Georgia's 14th appearance in a Thanksgiving tournament all time.
The Lady Bulldogs' first turkey day junket was a venture to Chicago - hometown of then sophomore Janet Harris - for the 1982 Crush Classic. Georgia topped Rutgers, the defending AIAW national champs, before falling to UCLA in the championship.
All told, the Lady Dogs have compiled a 26-5 record in Thanksgiving events.
Georgia has won tournament titles at the: 1983 Detroit Classic; 1986 Southern Invitational in Atlanta; 1988 Hall of Fame Classic in Cincinnati; 1989 Wimmer's Invitational in Lincoln, Neb.; 1999 Dead River Classic in Orono, Maine; 2007 Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas; 2008 UNLV Lady Rebel Round-up in Law Vegas; 2009 Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic in Hattiesburg, Miss.; and 2010 LMU event, which featured the longest name of any event on that ledger.
80-point mark improves
With their 84-51 victory over Indiana on Nov. 21, the Lady Bulldogs improved to a staggering 423-7 when scoring 80 or more points during Andy Landers' 32 seasons as Georgia's head coach.
converts to an almost unfathomable 98.372093 winning percentage.x
