University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Houston
Southern Miss Defeats Houston, 57-55
2/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2010
HOUSTON, Texas - Junior Torye Pelham's tip-in at the buzzer gave Southern Miss a 57-55 victory over Houston.
Southern Miss (14-8, 4-4 C-USA) has now won four straight games after dropping its first four conference games.
Gary Flowers led the Black and Gold with 15 points and six rebounds. Junior Sai'Quon Stone had 12 points, all in the second half, and junior R.L. Horton added 11. Pelham scored just six points, but grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds.
The Golden Eagles held a 55-50 lead with 2:19 to play after Sai'Quon Stone connected on an old-fashioned three-point play. However, Southern Miss was called for four straight fouls, with Houston hitting 5-of-8 free throws to tie the game at 55 with 30 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Eagles ran the clock down to under 10 seconds when Angelo Johnson drove to the basket. But Johnson lost the ball, and Pelham picked it up and attempted a lay-up. But the ball rimmed out, and Pelham tipped it back in for the victory.
"If I had to explain this game, it is that we had adversity after adversity, and kept fighting through it," said Southern Miss head coach Larry Eustachy. "When you start out as poorly as we did, it's hard to keep playing the other aspects of the game. But, we kept playing. In the second half, I thought we wanted it just a little bit more. But it just came down to a bang-bang play."
Houston held a 29-21 lead at the half, but Southern Miss opened the second half on a 9-2 run to pull within 31-30 2:22 into the half. Aubrey Coleman's jumper moved it to 33-30, but Flowers connected on a three-pointer to tie the game at 33.
Marcs McNeil hit one of two free throws to retake the lead, but a Maurice Bolden lay-up gave Southern Miss its first lead of the game, 35-34 with 11:36 to play.
Coleman gave the Cougars the lead back on two free throws. But a trey by Bolden and two free throws from Stone gave Southern Miss a 40-36 lead with 9:17 to play.
Houston drew to within one, but the teams battled over the next three minutes, exchanging baskets on each possession.
The Golden Eagles led by five points three times, before UH's free throws tied the game.
Coleman, the nation's leading scorer, led all players with 22 points. McNeil recorded a double-double with 12 points and 13 points. Kelvin Lewis, who is sixth in the conference in scoring, was held to just six points.
Southern Miss shot 40.4-percent from the floor, and held Houston to 32.3-percent, including just 25% in the second half. They held a slim 41-40 edge in rebounding, including 17 offensive rebounds.
Southern Miss ends a two-game road trip next Wednesday when they face Tulsa. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT.
