University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles End Regular Season, Against East Carolina
3/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Files associated with this release:
Southern Miss - East Carolina Game Notes
Eagles End Regular Season, Against East Carolina
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Golden Eagles end another regular season Saturday afternoon, hosting the only team on the 2003-04 Southern Miss schedule that the USM program has never beaten, the East Carolina Pirates, in a 4 p.m., game that also will feature Senior Day and the final home game for three Golden Eagle seniors, Clement Carter, Charles Gaines and Greg Johnson.
Of course, the teams have played only four times previous to today's game, and this will be only the second Hattiesburg trip for the visiting Pirates, after the Eagles played each of the last two C-USA seasons in Greenville, N.C. ECU's only other game in the Hub City was played during the 1971-72 season.
In last year's game in Greenville, N.C., the Pirates won, 60-57, after trailing 24-22- at halftime. Southern Miss put four players in double figures, with Mario Myles leading the way with 15 points. Charles Gaines added 13.
Derrick Wiley led all scorers with 21 for the winners.
East Carolina comes into the game off a 77-73 loss Wednesday at Marquette. The Pirates had won three straight games prior to that loss. Wiley leads this year's team in scoring, at 15.0 points a game. Gabriel Mikulas is at 13.0 a game and Mike Cook at 10.2. The visitors average 71.5 points a game, and give up 67.0
Southern Miss continues to get outstanding play from Gaines, who leads the team in both scoring (15.7) and leads the team and the conference in rebounding, at 10.5.
Jasper Johnson has five double-figure scoring games in his last six outings, including a game-high 22 in the Wednesday victory over Tulane, and has pushed his average into double figures, at 12.9 points a game.
Following Saturday's game, Southern Miss, along with other C-USA teams, will wait for the outcome of final conference games and for pairings for the Mar. 10-13 conference tournament that will be played in Cincinnati, Ohio. Early indications are that the Eagles will be either the No. 9 or No. 10 seed.
