University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Troy
Golden Eagles Hit the Road Again for Troy
11/14/2018 9:50:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team is back in action Thursday night when it plays at Troy. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN Plus.
Fans can also tune in to the game via the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel), and follow @SouthernMissMBB on Twitter.Â
–  The Golden Eagles are coming off an impressive 74-64 win at SMU. They trailed 10-2 to start, then rallied to eventually take a 49-42 lead. After SMU scored the next eight points, the two squads fought tooth-and-nail to a tie at 7:59 before Southern Miss put together a game-deciding 14-4 run.
– Tyree Griffin and Gabe Watson were the key performers. Griffin scored the first nine points and put together his eighth-career 20-point game (7-for-10 from field, 4-for-4 on threes). Watson, a freshman, connected on his first three deep attempts and finished with 14 points off the bench. The Golden Eagles also held a 36-31 rebounding advantage despite playing a guard-heavy lineup. Last season, it out-rebounded its opponent just five times.
–  Southern Miss also went 13-for-24 from beyond the arc, its first time shooting over 50 percent from long-range since Feb. 2, 2017 versus Marshall.
–  The last meeting between the teams saw the Golden Eagles pull out an 89-71 win, courtesy of Dominic Magee's season-high 27 points. The newcomer made his presence known by collecting 10 of the team's first 13 points and having no turnovers in his 35 minutes. Not to be outdone, Griffin also went 8-for-11 from the field (and 4-for-5 from deep) with 23 points and five assists. Southern Miss led by 26 with 10 minutes to play.
– The Black and Gold continued its trend of improving its C-USA win total in each season Doc Sadler has been in charge (3-5-6-7) after inheriting a two-year NCAA postseason ban and loss of scholarships amongst other sanctions, and are one of 11 teams in the nation to hold such distinction. The team's 16 wins last season marked its most since the 2011-12 NCAA Tourney squad.
– Southern Miss returns 87 percent of its points from a year ago, including four starters (Griffin, Magee, Cortez Edwards, Kevin Holland). Edwards ended last season with four consecutive 20-point games, the first Golden Eagle to accomplish the feat since Chip Armelin in 2015. Edwards also averaged 27.3 ppg in the final three games to earn All-Tournament honors, which included a 30-spot against Marshall.
– Edwards needs 18 points and 56 rebounds to become the fourth player in Southern Miss history to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists over their career. Edwards also finished his junior season with single-season school records for steals (71) and minutes (1,219). He also has 982 points in his collegiate career, increasing his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg those first three years.
– Griffin, after sitting out the 2016-17 season following his transfer from Oklahoma State, was the team's second-leading scorer (15.0 ppg) and recorded 201 assists, second-most in program history (and most since Dallas Dale in 1991-92). Griffin has two, 12-assist games in his career, with one of them coming at Kansas as a sophomore.
– Next week's trip to Cancun continues Southern Miss' trend of tropical trips. In August 2017, the squad was able to take a three-game preseason swing in The Bahamas, and in December 2016 competed in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
–  The Golden Eagles ranked fifth and 10th nationally for fewest turnovers per game (9.8) and assist-turnover ratio (1.51) last season.Â
