After knocking down what appeared to be the dagger three-pointer with just more than a minute to play Friday night, Southern Mississippi guard Domonique Davis reached for the square of her back.
Davis has been playing with a herniated disk much of the year.
But that wasn't going to stop her from, quite literally, putting the Golden Eagles on her back.
No. 3 seed Southern Mississippi ended 11th-seeded Arkansas State's Cinderella run at the Sun Belt Conference tournament, edging the Red Wolves 79-72 at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla.
Davis piled up 22 points to go along with 8 assists and 5 rebounds as the Golden Eagles leaned on a 13-0 third-quarter run to get some separation in their quarterfinal matchup, putting away an ASU team that Southern Mississippi Coach Joye Lee-McNelis admitted in her on-court postgame interview had her worried.
"Hats off to them for just being ready to go in that third quarter," Red Wolves Coach Destinee Rogers said of the Golden Eagles. "They're a more experienced team. They knew what they had to do and they did it."
Southern Mississippi (21-9), however, was not in control the whole way. Although the Golden Eagles held a 34-32 advantage at halftime, the lead changed hands 10 times in the first two quarters alone.
Anna Griffin, Mailyn Wilkerson and Leilani Augmon each drilled a pair of three-pointers as ASU (13-19) shot 6-of-10 from beyond the arc as a team in the opening 20 minutes.
And that trio was mostly why Rogers refused to spend more than a few sentences at a time in the postgame press conference dwelling on the game itself.
Griffin led the Red Wolves with 17 points. Izzy Higginbottom (14), Wilkerson (13), Lauryn Pendleton (12) and Augmon (10) joined her in double figures. All five are sophomores, and barring a transfer, they'll all return for Rogers next season.
"We're a young team," Higginbottom said. "We just know that we have a lot of potential. ... We're going to learn from this and like [Rogers] said, we're going not going to feel like this again."
Although it wasn't going to necessarily absolve her of the pain from Friday's loss, Rogers was adamant about the "special season" she believes is on the way for ASU next year.
"We've got our whole starting five coming back plus some, and I can line up with that team and go again," Rogers said. "We just want to get back into the lab and work."
At a glance
SUN BELT
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
At Pensacola Bay Center
Pensacola, Fla.
All times Central
QUARTERFINALS
FRIDAY’S GAMES
James Madison 62, Marshall 43
Old Dominion 86, Troy 83
Southern Miss. 79, Arkansas St. 72
Texas State 56, Appalachian State 47
SEMIFINALS
SUNDAY’S GAMES
James Madison vs. Old Dominion, 11:30 a.m.
Southern Mississippi vs. Texas State, 2 p.m.