University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Host Nationally-Ranked Louisville
1/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Eagles Host Nationally-Ranked Louisville
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss takes on No. 8-ranked (A.P. & USA Today/ESPN) Louisville Wednesday, at 7 p.m., in Green Coliseum in a Conference USA game that will be televised back to Louisville.
The Cardinals bring a 14-1 record and a 13-game winning streak into the game, the nation's second longest current win streak. The Golden Eagles (9-7, 2-3) will be trying to snap a three-game losing streak, after dropping a 76-75 decision to Houston at the Coast Coliseum Saturday.
The game will be the 39th between the two teams, with Louisville leading the series, 27-11. Southern Miss won the last game the two teams played, 69-60, Jan. 21, 2001, in Green Coliseum. In fact, the Eagles have won the last two games played in Hattiesburg.
The Cardinals are coming off a 72-69 win at Tennessee, and will bring the nation's fifth-best scoring team in the current NCAA rankings. In the Tennessee game, Louisville trailed much of the game, but fought back late to win.
Reece Gaines leads Louisville in scoring, at 18.4 points a game, and only teammate Marvin Stone is in double figures with Gaines, at 13.4 points a game. Through the Jan. 20 NCAA ranking, the Cardinals were fifth in scoring offense, fourth in scoring margin and enjoyed several other top-20 rankings in other categories. The balanced Cardinals have gotten points from 15 different players this season, and have six players with more than 100 points, two others with 80 or more. By comparison, Southern Miss has two players over the 200-point mark, another with 100-plus.
Despite only a six-point game against Houston, Charles Gaines continues to lead the Golden Eagles with a 14.4 scoring average. Greg Johnson keeps improving his average, now at 13.3, and Jasper Johnson does the same. He's now at 11.0 points a game. The Eagles continue to outrebound the opposition, 39.0-to-34.4, numbers that rank the Eagles fourth in C-USA in the rebounding margin category.
Louisville is averaging 83.3 points a game, and Southern Miss is at 68.1.
Following the Louisville game, Southern Miss plays at Memphis, Feb. 1, host UAB, Feb. 4, and then play road games at East Carolina (Feb. 8), and TCU (Feb. 12).
