Southern Miss women’s basketball gears up for conference tournament

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) -The Lady Eagles head to Frisco, Texas as they ramp up preparations for the Conference USA Tournament.

The Golden Eagles secured a bye in the first round after finishing the regular season 17-11 and ranking third in the west division.

A solid ranking entering the postseason but even more impressive considering Southern Miss ranked 13th in the C-USA preseason poll.

“We must be able to lock in from the get-go, play with a little chip on our shoulder that we were picked 13th,” Southern Miss Women’s Basketball head coach Joye Lee-McNelis said.

“We finished higher than 13th, so we got to feel good about it but still play with a little chip that we don’t have respect. I get it, I get it but we’ve got to earn some respect and this tournament time gives us a great opportunity to do that.”

The Lady Eagles are ready to prove the doubters wrong in the postseason.

“We proved a lot of people wrong,” Southern Miss guard Domonique Davis said. “We knew coming in what type of talent we had, the workers we had. We knew what we could do and we just wanted to show everybody that and I think we did that great.

“We were halfway through the season doing better than a lot of people expected and we still remembered where people thought we were going to be and we still wanted to prove people wrong because we knew and we wanted the world to know.”

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