University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
8-4
South Dakota
6-7
Men's Basketball Fights for 66-60 Road Win at South Dakota
12/21/2018 10:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball
VERMILLION, S.D. -- Eight days of hotels and bus rides in the Midwest, coupled with hard-fought battles at Wichita State (63-60) and Kansas State (55-51), were of no match for Southern Miss' willpower, as the Golden Eagles won 66-60 at South Dakota on Friday night.
"South Dakota plays with a lot of pace to their offense," head coach Doc Sadler said. "It's been a long week, but I could not be more proud of our basketball team the last 7-8 minutes tonight. We showed some toughness and had some guys step up for big shots. Overall, it was a great team win for us."
The Coyotes were 30-4 at home since the start of the 2016-17 season before the Golden Eagles came to town.
Cortez Edwards (14 points, 11 rebounds) also became the fourth player in Southern Miss history to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists. He joins Courtney Beasley (2006-09), Derrek Hamilton and John White (both 1985-88) on the esteemed list.
"Cortez is one of those players who brings it every day, so you know he will be consistent," Sadler said. "I can't say I've ever seen him have a bad practice in four years, so therefore he will give you that effort each and every night. I've played him an awful lot of minutes, and tonight I tried to get him some rest, but the bottomline was that he played 38 minutes."
The Golden Eagles (8-4) allowed an average of 59.3 ppg in the week's three road games.
It was a 40-minute battle that featured many unsung heroes. Kevin Holland connected on a season-high three deep balls, including two in the second half. Boban Jacdonmi, after not playing the first two games of the road trip, appeared early in the second half and collected a career-high six points (3-for-5 shooting) in just eight minutes to go with some solid defense.
Holland's three-pointer with 10:57 left gave Southern Miss its first lead since the 4:22 mark of the first half. A minute later, South Dakota regained the lead, but Tim Rowe came back with a short bucket that ultimately put the Golden Eagles ahead for good.
Southern Miss held a 7-0 run that put it ahead 58-50 with 3:32 to play before the Coyotes found new life on a three-pointer. Edwards' layup with 2:06 left made it a 60-54 game, and as the defense held strong, LaDavius Draine swished a three-point dagger in front of his bench to extend the lead to 63-54 with 39 seconds on the clock.
The most unique aspect of the game was that Southern Miss did not attempt a free-throw until there were 21 seconds left, and Tyree Griffin sank three of his four attempts to keep South Dakota at bay. The Golden Eagles, who outscored the Coyotes 30-18 in the paint, are just the 26th team out of 302 since the 2010-11 season to win despite having four or fewer free-throws and allowing 20 or more (according to sports-reference.com).
Southern Miss now heads into Conference USA play with an 8-4 record, its best non-conference mark of the Sadler era. The Golden Eagles play at Louisiana Tech on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 4 p.m. CT.
NOTABLE
-Southern Miss earned its third true road win of the season (also SMU and Troy) after averaging just 1.5 over the previous four seasons.
-Cortez Edwards collected his 11th-career double-double.
-Edwards passed John Prince (1973-77) for No. 29 on the school's all-time scoring list.
-The Golden Eagles are 8-0 when out-shooting their opponent, 7-0 when shooting 45 percent or better, and 8-2 when holding their opponent to less than 45 percent.
-This was just the second all-time meeting between the schools. South Dakota won 84-71 in the Sanford Pentagon Showcase (Sioux Falls, S.D.) in Nov. 2017.
-Southern Miss committed just six turnovers, having entered the night No. 7 nationally (9.9 pg).
-Leonard Harper-Baker recorded a career-high four assists.
