Southern Miss Concludes Non-Conference Play at South Dakota on Friday

Friday, December 21

Vermillion, SD

7 p.m. CT

Southern Miss

South Dakota

Southern Miss Concludes Non-Conference Play at South Dakota on Friday

12/20/2018 4:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes (PDF)

VERMILLION, S.D. -- The long trek through the Midwest comes to a close Friday night for the Southern Miss men's basketball team, where it will face the South Dakota Coyotes at 7 p.m. CT.

Video streaming (for a fee) can be found on GoYotes.com, while John Cox will have the radio call on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and the USM Gameday app.

The Golden Eagles began the day in Manhattan, Kan., before driving through Nebraska and Iowa to reach their next destination.

– Southern Miss is off to its best start (7-4) through 11 games since the 2011-12 NCAA Tournament season, excluding vacated seasons of 2012-13, 2013-14 and the first six wins of 2014-15. This year's team is 2-2 in true road games, after averaging just 1.5 over the last four seasons.

– The Golden Eagles are coming off two heartbreaking losses in the Sunflower State to begin the road trip. On Wednesday in Manhattan, the Black and Gold led No. 28 Kansas State by as much as 16 early in the second half after falling behind 7-0. The Wildcats rallied with a 24-2 run, and while Southern Miss got back within 44-42 at the 5:54 mark, KSU staved off the rally. It marked the fewest points allowed by the Golden Eagles (55) in a loss since Jan. 12, 2017 at Old Dominion (54-50).

– In Saturday's game at Wichita State, Southern Miss found itself down 16 with 10 minutes to go before it unleashed a 14-0 run that was capped off by Cortez Edwards' backdoor cut and dunk with five minutes remaining. Dominic Magee's reverse layup with 53 seconds left put Southern Miss up by one. Tyree Griffin was fouled on a game-tying three-pointer, but injured on the play, and Wichita State elected to send Leonard Harper-Baker to the line, where he was unable to convert.

– This is the second installment of a six-game road swing for the Golden Eagles. The Jan. 10 home game versus Middle Tennessee will be its first in 30 days, the longest-such stretch away from Hattiesburg since a seven-game span in the 1997-98 season (31 days). The 1978-79 team also went 38 days between home contests.

– This is only the second all-time meeting between the schools, with the other one coincidentally coming 62 miles away in Sioux Falls, S.D., over Thanksgiving weekend at the 2017 Sanford Pentagon Showcase. The Coyotes, who would go on to finish 25-9, took a 32-31 halftime lead after a 6-0 run, then outscored the Golden Eagles 52-40 in the second half for the win.

– South Dakota, like Southern Miss, has played a gauntlet of a road non-conference schedule. The Coyotes played three games in the Bimini (Bahamas) Jam, which included a win over UMBC, and have also gone on the road to take on Baylor, Colorado, Colorado State (win), and most recently, No. 1 Kansas. Head coach Todd Lee was at Grand Canyon from 2013-18 as the associate head coach, where Dominic Magee played the 2015-16 season. The Coyotes return four starters from last year with two grad transfers.

– Edwards needs four 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 increased his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg his first three years, and his 157 steals rank No. 4 all-time, passing assistant coach Clarence Weatherspoon on Wednesday. The school record is 193, held by Curtis Green (1980-84). Edwards is also the first since Gary Flowers in 2011 to reach the 1,000-point mark, and is now No. 30 in school history with 1,124. Next up for Edwards is John Prince (1973-77) at 1,134.

– Southern Miss is No. 2 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.81) and No. 7 for fewest turnovers (9.9 pg). As for the latter category, the Black and Gold have made major improvements over the course of Sadler's tenure. The team was No. 296 in the 2014-15 season, then finished No. 245, 117 and No. 5 in 2017-18 (first time averaging less than 10 per game since the 2008-09 season).

– The Golden Eagles currently rank first or second in C-USA for assist-turnover ratio, assists per game, defensive rebounds per game, fewest fouls per game, scoring margin, total assists and turnovers per game.