University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
3-0
Troy
1-3
Cortez Edwards joins 1,000-Point Club as Southern Miss rolls Troy
11/15/2018 8:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball
TROY, Ala. -- He had scored 18 points in his first two games, and needed 18 more to reach 1,000 for his career.
And at the 16:49 mark of the second half, Cortez Edwards became the 37th Golden Eagle to accomplish the feat, as well as the first since Gary Flowers in 2011.
Edwards finished 11-for-16 from the field, including 4-for-6 on three-pointers. Southern Miss held a 16-point halftime lead and led by as much as 25 in the second half en route to an 81-66 win over Troy on Thursday night.
"Cortez is one of those players who everyone questioned when he came in here," head coach Doc Sadler said. "He has constantly improved his game and he is the most important thing: a winner. He makes our team better. He's reached 1,000 points, and he's done a tremendous job. We're gonna miss him when he's gone, but we sure will enjoy the next 28-30 or so games we have with him."
Southern Miss out-shot Troy 59 to 26 percent in the first half, including going 11-for-15 (73 percent) from inside the arc. The Golden Eagles also held Troy to 5-for-19 shooting (28.3 percent) from deep.
The Golden Eagles unleashed a 17-1 run that put it ahead 37-16 with 3:51 to go in the half.
Troy's 12-2 run over a 2:28 span forced Southern Miss to call a timeout with 7:32 to play and a 65-54 Golden Eagle lead. LaDavius Draine's three-pointer at the five-minute mark put Southern Miss up again by 16, and the Black and Gold had all the cushion they needed.
"One of the good things about these seniors is that they are building a culture for us," Sadler said. "We have practice at 9 a.m. every day, and a lot of those guys are in there at 7:30 or 8 every day. They're either lifting weights or getting shots up, and that's what you have to have. When you do that, good things are gonna happen."
Southern Miss (3-0) now flies the friendly skies on Sunday for the Cancun Challenge, where it will first take on North Florida at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
NOTABLE
-Cortez Edwards' four three-pointers were one off the career-high he had in last year's C-USA quarterfinal win over Middle Tennessee (5-for-6).
-Edwards now has 13 games of 20-plus points.
-Southern Miss scored its most points away from home since the 2015-16 finale at Marshall (106).
-The Golden Eagles have back-to-back true road wins (74-64 at SMU on Sunday) for the first time of the Doc Sadler era.
-Southern Miss finished with 22 assists to just eight turnovers. Last year, its 1.51 ratio was 10th in the nation.
-The Golden Eagles connected on 13 deep balls for the second consecutive game.
-Tyree Griffin (10 points) was one assist away from his fifth-career double-double.
-Leonard Harper-Baker had a career-high 10 points and also matched a personal-best of eight rebounds. He is 10-for-13 from the field this season.
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