Southern Miss
7-4
Kansas State
8-2
No. 28 Kansas State steals one from Southern Miss, 55-51
12/19/2018 10:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Southern Miss overcame a slow start to eventually lead by 16 against the No. 28 Kansas State Wildcats, but the Purple and White's home-court advantage and 2018 Elite Eight experience helped it slip away, 55-51, from the Golden Eagles on Wednesday night.
"I thought the first half we did everything but you have to give them credit for the second half," head coach Doc Sadler said. "[Kamau] Stokes got hot and hit four threes on us and that was the difference in the ball game. You hold a team to 55 points and you have to win. We were 7-of-33 from the three-point line and did not get to the free throw line, so give them credit. They made some plays down the stretch that we did not make."
The two teams last played each other in Pittsburgh during the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament. The Golden Eagles' following 2 1/2 seasons would be vacated, including probation and scholarship limitations that remain in place this season.
Southern Miss led 31-19 at the break after Gabe Watson's soft dunk in the final second. The Golden Eagles trailed 7-0 in the early going, but buckled down on defense and found their touch for a 14-0 run over the next 4:21.
The 19 first-period points were the second-fewest allowed in a half for the Golden Eagles, and the best-such showing against a Division I team since leading Louisiana Tech 40-17 at the break on March 3.Â
"There are 20 more minutes," Sadler said as his halftime message to the team. "It is not even close to being over with. You know they are going to make a run and they did. Then we came back and had to show some toughness and we did. But you knew that they were going to come back.
"The first five minutes of the second half we came out, played with energy and got a steal on the first possession. They are a good basketball team. We missed some open shots, they got on that run and we could not stop it."
The Golden Eagles showed lots of life in the opening minutes of the second half, as Cortez Edwards picked up a steal and fastbreak dunk over his defender on the first possession. Tyree Griffin then hit a jumper at 16:05 to up the lead to 35-19, the largest of the night. Kansas State then put together a 24-2 run that lasted until the 7:44 mark of the second half. The Wildcats hit back-to-back three-pointers, after missing its first 10, in that burst to force a Southern Miss timeout at 14:13.
Despite the Wildcats leading 43-37 at that point, Edwards and LaDavius Draine scored the next five points to cut it back to 43-42. It would be the closest Southern Miss would get. Dominic Magee calmly hit two free-throws with 11 seconds left to make it a 53-51 game, but Kansas State's Barry Brown sank two more on the other end to finish the game.
"They missed some open shots in the first half," Sadler said. "We did a good job of defending, though. I have to give our guys credit. We did not give them any easy baskets and we made them earn it. We did not give them that many offensive rebounds. We made them earn every point that they got."
Southern Miss (7-4) now looks to close out the arduous road trip Friday night at 7 p.m. CT at South Dakota.Â
NOTABLE
-Kansas State finished with just 20 made field goals, its fewest at home in seven games (Feb. 21 versus Texas).
-It also marked Southern Miss' fewest field goals allowed to a Division I team since Charlotte on Feb. 10 (also 20).
-The Golden Eagles allowed just 44 field goal attempts, the fewest since Mississippi State (44) on Dec. 23, 2017.
-Cortez Edwards' game-high 18 points gives him 1,124 for his career, passing John Vitrano and Vandarel Jones for No. 30 in school history.
-Edwards passed assistant coach Clarence Weatherspoon for No. 4 in program history for steals (157).Â
-The Golden Eagles held a 17-8 advantage in forced turnovers.
-Southern Miss' 11 steals marked the fifth time in 11 games this season it reached double-digits.
-Tyree Griffin played all 40 minutes, the first Golden Eagle to do so since Edwards against Rice in the 2017 C-USA Tournament.
-It was the fourth time Griffin has played that much in a game, having done so against George Mason, West Virginia and Iowa State as a sophomore at Oklahoma State.
