Southern Miss
Florida Atlantic
MBB Surrenders Halftime Lead, Falls 58-51 to FAU
1/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Southern Miss could not overcame slow starts in both halves at Florida Atlantic Thursday night, falling to the Owls, 58-51, in Conference USA action at FAU Arena.
The Golden Eagles (4-11 overall, 1-3 C-USA) shot the lowest field goal percentage of their first four C-USA contests, hitting just 17-of-45 shots (37.8 percent).
Tim Rowe scored a career-high 20 points off the bench to lead the Golden Eagles, while Khari Price added nine. Quinton Campbell added six points and a career-best nine rebounds.
Jackson Trapp paced the Owls (3-14, 1-3) with a team-high 15 points, while Solomon Poole added 11 and Ronald Delph tallied 11 points and 13 rebounds.
The Golden Eagles weathered the slow start in the opening half, but a 10-0 run over the first four minutes of the final half, after Southern Miss took a nine-point halftime lead, got the Owls back in the game.
"The game was lost in the first five minutes of each half," said Southern Miss coach Doc Sadler. "We got outscored 19-0 over the first five minutes of both halves and we only got 11 stops in the second half. At times we played pretty well tonight, and I was happy with some of the guys that came off the bench, as they actually got us back in the game."
Southern Miss found themselves behind 9-0 in the opening half, but started to get back in the contest as Rowe's jumper put the Golden Eagles on the board with 14:06 to go in the opening half. Rowe scored nine of the Golden Eagles first 10 points and gave the visitors their first lead at 10-9 with 10:44 left in the first period.
The two teams then tied four times with the last time coming at 17-17, before Southern Miss scored eight unanswered points over the next two-plus minutes to give the Golden Eagles a 30-21 lead at intermission.
After falling behind 31-30 to Florida Atlantic over the first four minutes of the second half, the Golden Eagles scored the next eight points to take a 38-31 advantage with 12:15 to play, but a balanced scoring attack for the Owls down the stretch enabled them to score 12 of the next 17 points to tie the score at at 43-43 with 5:09 to play.
Following a Southern Miss turnover on the next possession, Delph got a dunk and a free throw, as he was fouled on the play, and the Owls never trailed again in the contest.
The Golden Eagles complete the two-game trip when they travel to Miami for the first time to face FIU. The start time for the contest is 6 p.m. CT.
