SLU women’s hoops (4-5) fell below .500 on Friday, Dec. 15 following a 67-60 defeat to South Alabama (7-4) at the Pride Roofing University Center as their stiff non-conference slate continues. 

A sluggish first quarter put the Lady Lions behind the eight ball early on and they ultimately never fully recovered.

The Jaguars outscored Southeastern 18-9 through the first period of play and only trailed for exactly one minute when the score was 3-2 SLU from the 9:09 mark to 8:09 before Jordan Rosier’s three put USA on top into a lead they would never relinquish. 

Senior guard Hailey Giaratano put up 19 points, while Taylor Bell and Jalencia Pierre added 12 and 11 respectively for the Lady Lions in the losing effort. 

“We just need to lock in and execute on the offensive end, because defensively we can play,” Giaratano said despite setting her season-high watermark in scoring.

As a team, Southeastern shot just 36.4% from the field, its second-worst shooting performance of the season.

South Alabama held a 29-23 advantage heading into the halftime locker room after an improved second quarter performance from Southeastern. 

SLU drew to within one, 32-31 with 6:16 remaining in the third quarter but couldn’t maintain momentum and found themselves behind 45-37 heading into the fourth. 

The final quarter of action featured a barrage of free throws from both sides, resulting in the highest combined point total (45) for any period of play in the contest. 

Southeastern edged South Alabama 23-22 in the fourth, but came up seven points short in the end to a quality Jaguars side. 

SLU’s three-point shooting inefficiency and rebounding were two areas in which Guzzardo would’ve liked to see more from her squad.

The Green and Gold struggled from deep, netting only one of its 12 attempts while being outrebounded 42-24.

“I’m going to be honest, we’ve never been a huge three-point shooting team but we’ve got to try to hit around four or five a game, especially when we receive a lot of open looks. On the flip side, we knew offensive rebounding was their bread and butter and getting out into transition. That was a key and a focus for us coming in, but we just gave up too many crucial ones,” Guzzardo said. 

“We’ll learn from this and take advantage of our trip to Maui. It’ll be a great team bonding experience,” she added. 

The Lady Lions will look to brush off the loss tonight in Maui against undefeated Oregon State (8-0) before battling Tulsa (8-3) tomorrow at 9 p.m. (central time) to conclude their Hawaiian holiday getaway. 

Tip-off against the Beavers is set for 11:30 p.m. central and the game will be streamed on YouTube by OSU Beavers Athletics. Live stats can be accessed here.

Tomorrow’s game vs. Tulsa can also be viewed on YouTube while live stats can be tracked here. 

As always, for further Lady Lions basketball news, stay tuned to The Lion’s Roar.