University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
3-1
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North Florida
2-3
Golden Eagles' Second-Half Rally Not Enough Versus UNF
11/20/2018 5:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball
CANCUN, Mexico -- Southern Miss turned a 21-point halftime deficit into seven with 10:09 left in the game, but North Florida found a way to hand the Golden Eagles their first loss of the season, 64-48, in the first round of the Cancun Challenge.
UNF (2-3), winners of the Mayan bracket each of their two appearances of the tournament, is now 5-0 in the Hard Rock Resort.
"The thing that concerned me, is that while we had scored a lot, we needed more efficiency," Southern Miss head coach Doc Sadler said. "You have to get the ball to the baseline, and that's what we did the first 4-5 minutes of the second half as we came back. Their guys on the wing were long, and that frustrated us. We just needed to be more patient. You have to give credit to their team, they came ready to play, and I didn't have our team the same way."
Southern Miss (3-1), fresh off back-to-back, double-digit road wins at SMU and Troy, held the Ospreys to just 1-of-16 shooting from beyond the arc in the second half and 6-for-33 (18 percent) for the game. The Golden Eagles began the second half by forcing seven consecutive missed shots and seven turnovers, with a Tim Rowe layup cutting the margin to 44-36 at the 13:13 mark.
Once the Black and Gold got within 48-41, the Ospreys put together a 10-0 run that led to victory.Â
North Florida was led by Noah Horchler (16 points, 13 rebounds) and Garrett Sams (16 points, 12 rebounds).Â
The Golden Eagles (3-1) now face Western Carolina at 11:30 a.m. CT to close out the tournament, which will be the first meeting between the teams.
NOTABLE
-Tyree Griffin's six steals were a career-high and the most by a Golden Eagle since Cortez Edwards (six) versus Rice on Jan. 18.
-The team's 12 steals were also its most since that contest.
-Tim Rowe's 5-for-7 shooting matched a career-high for most field goals made, set four times previously (last: 5-for-5 versus Old Dominion on Feb. 8).
-Rowe was also the team's leading scorer (12 points) for the first time in his career.
-Edwards' 11 points gives him 1,019 for his career and marked his 50th double-figure scoring game.
