Southern Miss women’s basketball’s WNIT run ends in Super 16 loss at ULM

Southern Miss women’s basketball’s “ Magnificent Seven ” rallied for two wins in the WNIT, but its magical run came to an end Wednesday night.

The Lady Eagles, still playing with just seven players, suffered a season-ending 84-71 loss at Louisiana-Monroe in the Super 16.

Southern Miss held a 2-0 lead for the first two minutes of the game, but never took the lead back. ULM led by as many as 18 points in the second half.

ULM's Jakayla Johnson led the game with 31 points. Melyia Grayson scored 18 points for Southern Miss.

The Warhawks (21-13) will play the winner of Friday’s Troy-North Carolina A&T State game in the Great Eight.

Southern Miss (20-14) finished with consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in nine years.

"People will remember who they are as the Magnificent Seven," Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said in her postgame radio interview. "I'm just very grateful for them and how hard they played for us, the team and themselves."

Cold shooting start buries Southern Miss early

Southern Miss’ offense began the game in a rut, not because of turnover issues, but from painfully poor shooting.

The Lady Eagles missed their first 10 field goal attempts of the game and had two points off free throws until Domonique Davis converted a layup with 5:09 to play in the first quarter. Southern Miss shot 2-for-19 from the field in the entire quarter, with Davis connecting on the two shots.

The Lady Eagles had one turnover in the frame, but the cold shooting allowed ULM to open a 23-10 lead after the first quarter.

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Other Southern Miss players contribute in third quarter

Davis carried a big load in the first half, attempting 10 field goals and scoring eight points.

But in the third quarter, Southern Miss slowly chipped away at ULM's lead, and did so with multiple players contributing.

Grayson, Morgan Sieper and Jacorriah Bracey all connected on at least two field goals. Davis scored four points, but the Lady Eagles shot 60% from the field. At one point, they cut the ULM lead to 49-45, only for the Warhawks to produce a 12-0 run late in the third quarter.

Sieper then drained a 3-pointer in the final minute of the quarter to end the run.

Where Domonique Davis ends in record book

Wednesday's loss mean's Davis' prolific Southern Miss career has come to an end. After transferring from LSU before the 2021-22 season, she leaves Southern Miss as one of the program's best scorers.

In Saturday's win against Murray State, Davis scored 33 points and broke the Southern Miss single-season scoring record. With 16 points on Wednesday, she ends the season with a Southern Miss-best 667 points this season.

Davis also eclipsed 1,000 career points at the beginning of the season. She leaves Southern Miss with 1,624 career points, the sixth most in school history.

"I hate that she's going to leave our program," Lee-McNelis said. "She's going to move on to bigger and broader things, and I'm very grateful for that. I'm very grateful that we just had an opportunity to play a small part and hopefully we've helped her grow up a little bit. Her name will be remembered in the record book and heart of many Lady Eagle fans."

Sam Sklar is the Southern Miss beat reporter for the Hattiesburg American. Email him at ssklar@hattiesb.gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss women’s basketball’s WNIT run ends in Super 16 loss at ULM