With only 7 players available, Southern Miss women’s basketball beats UAB to advance in WNIT

HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss women's basketball only had seven players dress on Wednesday night for the first round of the WNIT.

It turned out that's all the Lady Eagles needed.

Shorthanded Southern Miss stormed from 10 points behind in the fourth quarter to top UAB 79-74 at Reed Green Coliseum.

The Blazers led for the entire game until a Melyia Grayson layup with 7:14 remaining in the fourth quarter. UAB then began to miss 3-pointers that kept falling in the first half and couldn't contain Grayson in the paint, who scored 14 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter. She also grabbed 16 rebounds.

Southern Miss (19-13) hosts Murray State (20-11) in the WNIT second round at 5 p.m. Saturday. That will also mark coach Joye Lee-McNelis 1,000th game of her head coaching career.

"I saw people who haven't even been to a women's game as I was heading out the tunnel," she said. "That's amazing, and so we got to make this thing 2K Saturday."

Southern Miss only dresses seven players

Of the 13 players on Southern Miss’ roster, only seven were available. 

Davis, Grayson, Morgan Sieper, Jacorriah Bracey and Nyla Jean started, with Mikaylah Manley and Mahoganie Williams coming off the bench. Davis finished with 26 points and Bracey double-doubled with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Southern Miss’ players not available for the game were Noelani Cornfield, Brikayla Gray, Emma Wallhoff, Elle Blatchford, Asjha Leake and Atria Dumas.

Dumas has been out with an injury, but Lee-McNelis confirmed that the other five players entered the transfer portal, which opened on Monday.

"I think regardless of who we had and didn't have, we were gonna play hard regardless," Davis said. "That's just the culture here. Once you put that jersey on, you're gonna play hard for all 40 minutes."

Davis, Bracey and Sieper all played at least 36 minutes.

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Southern Miss digs early hole, but Domonique Davis leads charge back

The first few minutes of the game went about as poorly as possible. UAB, which led its conference in 3-point percentage, drained all three of its first 3-point attempts to contribute to an 11-0 lead that later inflated to 17-4. 

But toward the end of the first quarter, Southern Miss began clawing back, first with a pair of Grayson layups for a 6-0 run. Then, Davis took over, splashing two 3-pointers for 12 first-quarter points. 

The Lady Eagles carried the momentum into the second quarter to fuel a 20-7 run to tie the game at 24 apiece. It was Davis who scored the tying bucket, intercepting a Blazers pass and bolting down the floor for a layup.

Melyia Grayson dominates fourth quarter

Southern Miss trailed UAB 58-48 entering the fourth quarter. It preceded to outscore the Blazers 31-16 for its highest-scoring quarter of the season.

Grayson, the 6-foot-3 redshirt junior from Hattiesburg, was at the center of the comeback, also posting five rebounds, two blocks and a steal to her 14 fourth quarter points.

"They are still trying to figure out how to stop her," Davis said. "Melyia's great. She's our big teddy bear, but once you hit that button, it's over with. Not a lot of people can go toe-to-toe with her."

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_.