Southern Miss
UTSA
Golden Eagles Drop Hard-Fought Contest to UTSA, 57-51
2/9/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Final Stats | USATSI photo gallery 
SAN ANTONIO - The UTSA Roadrunners prevailed in a game of runs, defeating the Southern Miss men's basketball team 57-51 on Thursday night inside the Convocation Center. Raheem Watts scored a game-high 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
"We played about as well as we could defensively," head coach Doc Sadler said. "When you hold a team to 36 percent from the field, 20 from the three-point line and 56 in free-throws and you can't score enough points to win, it's frustrating. We were up five with about 11 minutes to play and had the ball, also had a couple of opportunities with some breakaways and didn't come away with any points. The bottom line is the offensive rebounding and transition baskets were the difference in the ballgame."
Robert Thomas III entered the scoring column in a big way with a three-pointer that put Southern Miss ahead 41-36, but another 8-0 UTSA run put them ahead 44-41, a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the night.
UTSA's largest lead of the night came with 3:59 left after Jeff Beverly's jumper made it 53-44. Quinton Campbell came up huge with a three-point play at the 2:21 mark that cut the deficit to 53-49, and after two free-throws by Nick Allen, Cortez Edwards again made it a four-point margin with 1:11 on the clock. Those would mark the Golden Eagles' last points of the night.
The first half was where the biggest streaks came, capped off by an 8-0 run for Southern Miss that tied it at 28 going into halftime. The Golden Eagles turned it over with 31 seconds left, but Edwards' stingy defense led to a steal and layup attempt in which he was also fouled with 2.5 seconds left.
The Golden Eagles also led 11-2 (helped by two long-range makes by Watts) before the Roadrunners sped to their own 10-0 run. D'Angelo Richardson immediately responded with a three-pointer from the top of the key with 12:13 left in the half.
The Roadrunners are now 10-1 at home, with their only loss coming to first-place Middle Tennessee.
Southern Miss will look to regroup after its Friday flight to El Paso, where it will take on UTEP at 8 p.m. CT on Saturday night.
NOTES
-The home team has won all seven meetings in the series (Southern Miss leads 4-3).
-UTSA was held to 20 percent three-point shooting (4-for-20), the lowest defensive output by Southern Miss since ODU was 3-for-16 (18.8 percent).
-Raheem Watts reached double-figures in scoring for the fifth time of the year. His 17 points were two shy of his career-high.
-Watts made a trio of three-pointers for the third time in his career. He had just two makes all season long entering the night. His career-high of four deep balls was set in the Jan. 30, 2016 win at home against UTSA.
-Cortez Edwards' 11 rebounds marked his third-career double-digit rebounding game. All have come since Jan. 5 (career-high 13 in first UTSA meeting).
-Cortez Edwards' eight assists were a career-high (previous was seven against LA Tech on New Year's Day).
-Those eight also tied a Southern Miss season-high (Kevin Holland versus Tulane on Dec. 10).
-Bilal Abdur-Rahim made all three of his field goal attempts to improve to 55.8 percent on the year (38-for-68).
-Quinton Campbell's 16 points marked his 21st double-figure scoring game as a Golden Eagle. He had 20 in the first UTSA game last month.
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
