Lady Jags overcome adversity, defeat Texas State 69-59 in round three of Sun Belt Conference Tournament

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - The Lady Jags were without their top three scorers in Amyah Sutton, Daniela Gonzalez and Cordasia Harris after the Sun Belt Conference suspended them following yesterday’s fight during the game against Coastal Carolina. Following a six point second quarter, the team trailed 29-24 at halftime of their round three matchup against Texas State. But the Lady Jags came out swinging in the second half thanks to some of their younger players.

South opened the third quarter on an 13-2 run. Which was led by guard Tamara Ortiz. The redshirt sophomore couldn’t be stopped as Ortiz scored nine points in three minutes to put her team back on top. The Bobcats had five turnovers in the quarter and went cold from the field while the Lady Jags outscored Texas State 25-8 in third to make it a 49-37 game.

“I said hey we got that bad offensive quarter out of the way. Now we got a great feel of the game. We kind of said we’re going to protect this court,” said Head Coach Yolisha Jackson. “We’ve won here twice, they haven’t won. Let’s keep it going, let’s treat it like it’s our home court.”

Texas State didn’t make it easy in the fourth. The Bobcats came out aggressive and went on a 9-0 run to cut it to a one point game with about six minutes left. But freshman forward Jeriyah Baines knocked down two clutch jumpers to put the game out of reach. Baines finished with 12 points off the bench while Ortiz led the way with 22 points to help the lady jags win 69-59 to advance to round four.

“Everybody has the phrase next player up and when you are truly put in that position and your young women have a chance to put that on display and they own it it’s just, as a coach, it’s just a really proud and special feeling,” said Coach Jackson.

“My seniors were out I was like I’ve got have my senior’s back, it’s their last ride, I’ve got to have my senior’s back,” said Jeriyah Baines.

“This team has a lot of love for each other so we know we had to bring it home for them so they don’t go out that way so we can play another game with our two seniors and even Amyah so we just went out here and played hard even when adversity hit we just kept our composure and kept going,” added guard Tamara Ortiz.

South Alabama will be back at full strength for their round four matchup against Marshall tomorrow morning. Tipoff is scheduled for 11:30.