University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Rice*
Men's Basketball Falls To Rice 67-61
1/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2006
Final Stats | Quotes | Box Score (PDF)
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss men's basketball team dropped a 67-61 decision to Rice tonight in Reed Green Coliseum, despite the 18-point effort from freshman guard Courtney Beasley.
With the loss, Southern Miss falls to 7-13, 1-4 in Conference USA, while Rice improves to 9-9, 3-2.
In the first half, Southern Miss opened the game on a 7-4 run, before Rice used a 13-2 run to take a 17-9 advantage with 12:38 to play. But Southern Miss then used a 8-2 run to get within two, 19-17 with 9:55 remaining. The Golden Eagles tied the game at 23-23 on a jumper by David Cornwell with 7:52 left. With the game tied at 29 with 3:52 to play, Rice closed the first half on an 8-2 run, taking a 37-31 advantage at halftime.
The Golden Eagles got within four, 39-35 with 17:26 remaining in the contest, before Rice used a 7-0 run to push its lead to 11, 46-35 with 14:27 to play, for its biggest lead of the game.
Southern Miss cut Rice's lead down to four, 49-45, thanks to a three-point basket from Craig Craft with 9:36 to play, and then got within two, 50-48 on a three-point basket from Courtney Beasley with 6:57 left. The Golden Eagles got closer, 52-51 on a three-point basket from Jarekus Singleton with 6:08 remaining, and were again within one, 54-53 on a baseline jumper from Craft with 4:16 left.
But the Golden Eagles could not get closer, as Rice used a 5-0 run take a six point advantage, as it won by that margin, 67-61.
Rice out-shot Southern Miss 59 (24-41) to 50 (22-44) percent, including a 80 (8-10) to 29.4 (5-17) edge in three-point shooting. Southern Miss held a 25-19 edge in rebounds, including a 10-3 edge in offensive rebounds.
Beasley led Southern Miss with 18 points, while David Cornwell added 11 points. Jason Forte netted 10 points, while pulling down a game-high eight rebounds.
Morris Almond finished with 22 points to lead Rice, while Lorenzo Williams added 15 and J.R. Harrison finished contributed 10.
Southern Miss now hits the road for its next two games, traveling to UAB for a 7:30 p.m., contest on Saturday.
