Southern Miss
Rice
Men's Basketball Drops Heartbreaker at Rice, 58-56
1/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HOUSTON, Texas - Southern Miss scored just four points over the last 7:12 of the game, squandering a 10-point second half lead to fall, 58-56, at Rice, Thursday night at Tudor Fieldhouse.
The loss dropped Southern Miss to 5-12 and 0-6 in Conference USA. It also gave the Golden Eagles its first nine game losing streak since 2005.
Chip Armelin led the Golden Eagles with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Norville Carey had 15 points and four rebounds and Matt Bingaya added nine points and four boards.
Rice (6-11, 3-3) led 31-30 at the half. Andrew Drone opened the half with a jumper, but Bingaya found Carey for a dunk. Two minutes later, Rasham Suarez hit a three-opener to give Southern Miss its first lead of the game, 4:11 into the second half. However, Marcus Jackson hit a three for Rice to retake the lead.
The teams traded leads over the next two minutes until Armelin's dunk sent the Golden Eagles on a 12-2 run to take a 52-42 lead with 7:28 to play.
However, the Black and Gold went cold and Rice slowly began to chip away at the lead. Seth Gearhart drilled a three, sending the Owls on a 9-0 run over the next 3:48 and cutting the deficit to 52-51 with 3:40 remaining. Carey got the Golden Eagles back on the board with a jumper, pushing the lead to 54-51.
A minute and a half later, Gearhart made layup and was fouled by Michael O'Donnell. Gearhart made the free throw, tying the game at 54 with 1:08 to play.
Bingaya then hit a driving layup, but Gearhart immediately followed with a layup his own, retying the game. After a timeout, Southern Miss ran the clock down to nine seconds before Bingaya attempted a jumper. Jackson got the rebound for Rice, and, despite the game being tied, was immediately fouled by Armelin with five seconds to play. Jackson hit both free throws to put Rice up two, and Bingaya's jumper at the buzzer was off the mark, giving the Owls the victory.
The teams started in opposite directions, as Southern Miss made just one of its first six shots, while Rice jumped out to a 9-2 lead through the first 3:39.
After the teams traded three-pointers, Carey drained a three-pointer to pull within four. But Marcus Jackson and Seth Gearhart hit back-to-back threes to push the lead back to 10, 18-8.
Armelin hit his second three of the half, but a layup by Jeremy Jones and a three from Dan Peera gave Rice a 23-11 lead. Baskets from Armelin and Carey brought the deficit to single digits, but Jones hit one-of-two free throws and Bishop Mency hit a three to regain Rice's 12-point lead.
Armelin made one-of-three free throws, but a layup by Andrew Drone gave Rice a 29-16 lead with 9:31 to play in the half.
That's when Southern Miss stepped up its play. Kevin Holland made a three to send the Golden Eagles on an 8-0 run over the 2:55.
Gearhart hit a layup to extend Rice's lead to seven, but Southern Miss scored the last six points of the half to cut the lead to 31-30 at the break.
Southern Miss shot 44.9% (22-of-49) from the field, including 50.0% (8-of-16) from three. Rice was 45.5% (20-of-44) from the floor and 42.3% (11-of-26) from three. The Owls outrebounded Southern Miss, 32-to-23.
Jackson led all players with 19 points. Seth Gearhart had 16 and six rebounds.
Southern Miss closes the road trip this Saturday, January 24, when it travels to Denton to face North Texas. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. C.T.
