University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Hosts Marshall in Tough C-USA Battle
1/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2012
| Listen LIVE! | Buy Tickets! | Tip: 5:00 p.m | TV: CSS
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss men's basketball team closes a two-game homestand this Saturday, Jan. 21, when it hosts Conference USA leading Marshall. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT and will be televised on CSS.
This is the 12th meeting between Southern Miss and Marshall, with the Thundering Herd holding a 6-5 advantage. Southern Miss has won four of the last six games. The Golden Eagles are a perfect 4-0 at home. The teams split the season-series last year, with Marshall earning a 95-65 victory in Huntington and USM winning, 67-60, in Hattiesburg.
Southern Miss enters Saturday night's contest with a 16-3 record, and 3-1 in Conference USA. The Golden Eagles defeated UAB, 59-55, last Saturday.
Darnell Dodson led the Golden Eagles with a team-high 15 points while Neil Watson scored 11. Maurice Bolden recorded nine points and a team-high seven rebounds and Angelo Johnson added nine points, three assists and three steals.
LaShay Page leads the Black and Gold with 13.3 points. He leads the league in three-pointers made (2.9) and is seventh in three-point field goal percentage (.379). Dodson is scoring 12.3 points while pulling down 5.7 rebounds.
Bolden is scoring 11.1 points while grabbing a team-high 6.2 rebounds. He is also eighth in the league with 1.4 blocks per game. Johnson is also scoring 10.8 points and is ninth in the conference with 3.4 assists. Neil Watson is adding 10.3 points while connecting on 89.4% of his free throws, which leads C-USA. He is also fourth in assists (4.1).
As a team, Southern Miss is scoring 72.2 points and is allowing just 61.7. The Golden Eagles are hitting 42.0-percent of their shots and 37.3% of their three-pointers, which is fourth in Conference USA. Their opposition is connecting on 41.7% from the field and 34.6-percent from behind the arc. The Golden Eagles hold the advantage on the boards, as they are outrebounding their opponents 37.5-to-31.7, a difference of 5.8 per game. The Golden Eagles are also leading the league in free throw percentage (.749).
Head coach Larry Eustachy is in his eighth season at the helm of the Southern Miss men's basketball program. He has compiled a 133-107 (.554) record during his time as head coach. In 21 years, Eustachy has an overall record of 393-252 (.609).
Marshall comes into Saturday's conference game with a 13-5 record, 4-0 in Conference USA. The Thundering Herd had a four-game winning streak snapped when it fell, 78-62, to West Virginia on Wednesday.
Sophomore guard DeAndre Kane finished with a team-high 19 points. Senior guard Damier Pitts scored 15 points and junior forward Dennis Tinnon notched a game-high 10 rebounds.
Marshall is led by Kane with 16.1 points, which is third in the league. He is also sixth in C-USA in steals (1.6) and is eighth in assists (3.6), while pulling down 5.7 rebounds. Pitts is averaging 13.5 points while placing second in C-USA with 4.7 assists and fifth with 2.1 three-pointers made per game. Tinnon is scoring 9.7 points per game. He is also second in the conference in rebounding (10.8) and fourth in free throw percentage (.837).
As a team, the Thundering Herd is scoring 70.7 points per game while allowing 65.3. MU is shooting 43.3-percent from the floor while allowing their opponents to connect on 43.9-percent. Marshall is pulling down a league best 42.0 boards per game, while allowing 32.0, which is fourth in the league. The Herd is also connecting on just 30.3-percent of its three-point attempts and allowing its opposition to hit on just 30.1-percent, good for second in the league.
Head coach Tom Herrion is in his second season at the helm of the Marshall men's basketball program. He has compiled a 35-17 (.673) record as its head coach. In six years as a head coach, Herrion owns a 115-55 (.676) record.¬¬
