University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Move Into Finals At Hampton Tournament
12/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Final Game Stats
Eagles Move Into Finals At Hampton Tournament
Rock Hill, S.C. - Southern Miss evened its current four-game road trip record at 1-1 and pushed its overall record to 3-1 with a hard-fought 59-57 victory over Hampton (1-6) in the opening round of the Brothers Air/Heat Shootout in Rock Hill, S.C. The tournament is being hosted by Winthrop University and games is being played in the Winthrop Coliseum.
Southern Miss now moves into the Saturday night finals of the event, and will play the winner of tonight's second game, host Winthrop against Samford.
Ahead 19-12 after a Dante Stiggers' basket with 7:51 left in the first half, Southern Miss managed just six free throws thereafter, while Hampton was scoring 21 points to take a 33-25 lead at halftime. The Eagles went almost two minutes into the second half before getting another basket, and another 3:30 deep into the final half before adding another. At that point, Southern Miss trailed 43-30, with 14:46 left in the game.
From that point, the Eagles started to cut into that lead. A quick 6-0 run on three Charles Gaines baskets cut the margin to seven, Hampton pushed it back to 11, but a Jason Forte layup, a Greg Johnson 3-pointer, and an old-fashioned 3-point play by Gaines pulled Southern Miss to within three points, at 49-46, with 6:29 left.
David Haywood's 3-pointer with 5:23 remaining, gave Southern Miss its first since late in the first half, and Head Coach James Green's team pushed that to as many as six points, and won by two, after conceding Hampton a basket at the buzzer.
"Their dribble-penetration gave up problems all game long," said Green. "We've got to do a better job of defending that. We also allowed way to many offensive rebounds on the part of Hampton. Eighteen is too many to give up, and that's something else we'll have to work harder on. But, give our guys credit as well. We came back from a big deficit, and that took a lot of heart on their part. I'm proud of them."
After shooting just .348 (8-23) in the first half, the Eagles turned that around with 11-of-22 second half baskets to finish at .422 (19-45). Hampton shot just .352 for the game on 25-of-71. Also, after making just 9-of-15 first half free throws, Southern Miss made 10-of-11 in the second half to help the comeback effort.
Devin Green led all scorers with 25 points for Hampton, but he got 21 of those in the first half, just four in the second. Almost exactly the opposite, Gaines had just four first half points, to go with four rebounds, but turned that around with 17 second half points and nine rebounds, to finish with 21 points and a game-best 13 rebounds. It was his third double-double in four games.
Stiggers added 12 points and Greg Johnson 11. Gaines' 13 rebounds staked the Eagles to a solid 40-34 rebounding edge. Stiggers also added a game-high five assists and had just three turnovers, while running the offense for 39 minutes
Saturday night's title game is scheduled for 7 p.m., CT, and following that game, the Eagles then end the current road trip with a Dec. 13 game at Arkansas State.