Men's Basketball Continues Homestand Sunday Afternoon

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team will look for its second consecutive win Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts Rust College.

This will be the team's final game until Tuesday, Dec. 11 after exams. Fans unable to get to Reed Green Coliseum this weekend can follow with the CUSA.tv live stream, as well as through the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and USM Gameday app.

–    Southern Miss rebounded from a tough Sunday loss to defeat regional rival South Alabama, 71-67, on Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles came out on fire, taking a 17-1 lead. After South Alabama fought back to regain the lead with eight minutes left, the two squads fought tooth-and-nail till the Golden Eagles came out on top. Southern Miss was 14-for-23 at the foul line, but went 7-for-8 over the final 4:24.

–    The Golden Eagles shot 63 percent in the first half (17-27), their best-such performance since a 74 percent clip (20-for-27) in the second half on Jan. 4 versus UTEP.

–    Leonard Harper-Baker continued his major role with the team, producing a career-high 18 points and tying his personal-best of nine rebounds for the second consecutive game. His athleticsm and aggressiveness in the post has complemented the Golden Eagles' guard-heavy rotation.

–     Cortez Edwards became the 37th member of Southern Miss' 1,000-point club at Troy, going 11-for-16 from the field with 26 points at Troy. He is the first since Flowers in 2011 to reach that mark, and is now 33rd in school history with 1,067. Next up for Edwards is Gary Flowers at 1,078 from 2009-11.

–    Edwards needs 27 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 has also increased his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg his first three years.

–    Southern Miss is No. 7 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.81) and No. 11 for fewest turnovers (9.6 pg). The Golden Eagles also had 32 assists against Rust in last year's contest, the third-most in program history and highest output since 40 versus Virginia Tech in 1988.

–   Edwards scored a then-career-high 29 points in that Rust game, going 12-for-15 from the field with eight rebounds as well. Tyree Griffin also had 21 points and 12 assists.

–   Southern Miss has held a plus-12 turnover margin twice this year (South Alabama and Western Carolina). The Black and Gold are also 5-0 when outscoring their opponent and 4-0 when allowing 69 or fewer points.

–    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 (No. 20 nationally), including four starters (Griffin, Edwards, Dominic Magee, 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.

Men's Basketball Continues Homestand Sunday Afternoon

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Players Mentioned

Cortez Edwards

Tyree Griffin

Leonard Harper-Baker

Kevin Holland

Dominic Magee

University of Southern Mississippi Athletics