Southern Miss Finishes Strong in 89-73 Win at FIU

Thursday, January 31

Miami, Fla.

6 p.m. CT

Southern Miss

-139, 55 CUSA

FIU

-139, 45 CUSA

Southern Miss

FIU

Southern Miss Finishes Strong in 89-73 Win at FIU

1/31/2019 9:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Stats (PDF)

MIAMI, Fla. -- They call Miami the "Magic City," and there was no shortage of it in the second half of Southern Miss' 89-73 win at FIU on Thursday night.

The Golden Eagles (13-9, 5-5 C-USA), who led by 14 in the first half, overcame a slow second-half start to pull away late against the host Panthers (13-9, 4-5 C-USA), courtesy of six dunks over the final 8:13. Southern Miss led 47-45 at 15:28, but made it a 63-49 game on Cortez Edwards' fastbreak, reverse dunk that started the avalanche.

Freshman Gabe Watson had two of the explosive slams, the first coming off a three-point miss in which he leaped over the middle of the paint to also draw the foul. The exclamation point came on an alley-oop from Tyree Griffin with 28 seconds left.

"I thought that when FIU came out with the press, and our guys were aggressive against it and took advantage of it," head coach Doc Sadler said. "We got up 14, and then the things we were doing defensively, we flipped a switch because we were doing so well on offense. FIU scores 87 points per game, and that's what I kept trying to tell our guys. We came back in the second half, and despite not having a good start, we came back from it."

The 89 points marked Southern Miss' most away from home since March 5, 2016 at Marshall. The Golden Eagles now have five road wins after having that many over the previous four years.

Southern Miss shot 63.3 percent in the first half (19-for-30), the third-consecutive period its crossed 60. The Black and Gold missed eight of its first nine shots after the intermission, then made 18 of its final 25 to finish at 55.9 percent for the half. Watson had just four of his career-high 16 points in the first period, with two coming on a baseline jumper as the final buzzer sounded.

"When you hold a team that's averaging 25 free-throw attempts to just 12, it's a good game," Sadler said. "We gave up some three-pointers, but that's what we elected to do rather than give up the lane. Any time you win on the road, you have to be happy. That's two games where our defense has really taken off, allowing less than 40 percent shooting. We didn't shoot well from deep, and that's okay, but we were 10-for-12 from the foul line. We did the little things that you need to win, and hopefully this can carry over to Saturday."

Southern Miss now travels slightly north to battle Florida Atlantic at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday.

NOTABLE
-The last five meetings between with FIU had been decided by six points or less.
-Southern Miss is now 11-3 this season when leading at the half and 11-2 when scoring 70 or more points.
-It was the Golden Eagles' largest-margin of victory away from home since Feb. 25, 2017 at North Texas (76-53).
-The seven blocks tied for the team's most against a Division I team this year (South Alabama, Nov. 28).
-Southern Miss now has 53 assists the last two games and also outscored FIU 62-24 in the paint.
-Leonard Harper-Baker's 21 points on 10-for-11 shooting (90.9 percent) were both career-highs, and the latter serves as the fourth-best shooting game in Southern Miss history (min. eight makes). He is also the reigning C-USA Player of the Week.
-Current assistant coach and Golden Eagle legend Clarence Weatherspoon also went 10-for-11 at Florida State on Jan. 6, 1990.
-Southern Miss is 3-0 when Gabe Watson scores in double-figures (also against SMU and Middle Tennessee).
-LaDavius Draine's seven rebounds were one away from matching a season-high.
-Cortez Edwards scored 18 points, marking an average of 20.0 per game against FIU the last four meetings.
-Tyree Griffin's seven assists gives him 355 for his career (No. 9 in school history).

We made 13 of our first 14 shots and scored our most points away from home since March 5, 2016.

Yes, we included the late-game dynamic dunking display. 🎥🍿 #SMTTT pic.twitter.com/RZKyukqIEc
— Southern Miss MBB (@SouthernMissMBB) February 1, 2019