Saturday, November 9
Mobile, AL
7 p.m. CT
Southern Miss
at
South Alabama
Southern Miss Set for First Road Test Saturday at South Alabama
11/8/2019 5:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team will take to the road for the first time this season when it plays at South Alabama on Saturday night. Tip-off from the Mitchell Center is set for 7 p.m. CT.
Fans can catch the game on ESPN Plus and the Southern Miss Learfield IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel). Mike Coulter will have the radio call.
The Jaguars were tabbed as the preseason Sun Belt favorites and are coming off an 82-51 victory over Pikeville on Wednesday. Southern Miss leads the all-time series 26-17.
Game Notes
– Southern Miss opened the Jay Ladner era Tuesday with a 90-71 victory over Delta State. The Hattiesburg native, Southern Miss graduate and two-sport Golden Eagle letterwinner arrived from Southeastern Louisiana, where he inherited NCAA sanctions and helped the Lions to a Southland Conference regular-season title in 2017-18, his fourth year at the helm.
– The squad led 49-29 at the half and was paced by Boban Jacdonmi's career night of 29 points and 10 rebounds. By comparison, the redshirt-senior had 30 points and 13 rebounds in 23 games last season. It was the highest-scoring season opener by a Golden Eagle since Charles Gaines had 33 against Alcorn in 2012. Jay Malone also had 10 of the team's 27 assists in his debut.
– Ladner and second-year South Alabama head coach Richie Riley are quite familiar with each other from their Southland Conference days. Ladner was 3-1 against Nicholls from the 2016-18 seasons, in which his teams shot 44.1 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from long range, while Riley's squads were limited to 40.6 and 28 percent, respectively. South Alabama, the preseason Sun Belt favorite, was third last season in both field-goal percentage and three-point shooting.
– In last year's meeting between the teams, Southern Miss raced out to a 17-1 lead before the Jaguars took the lead with less than 10 minutes left. The Black and Gold clamped down late, thanks to Leonard Harper-Baker's then-career-highs of 18 points and nine rebounds, to win 71-67. Other key factors included a 27-7 advantage in points off turnovers, as Southern Miss forced 17 and committed only five. Jaguar grad transfer Kory Holden also went 8-for-10 on three-pointers off the bench.
– Last year, Southern Miss (CBI) made its first postseason appearance since 2012 and seventh since 2001. The Golden Eagles, still under NCAA sanctions from the vacated 2012-14 seasons, have won 36 games the last two years, each time making the Conference USA semifinals and defeating the defending champ in the process. The Golden Eagles will formally get over its probation on Feb. 1, 2020. Over the past five years, Southern Miss joined only Florida A&M and Saint Louis as teams to perfectly improve its league win total each season (3-5-6-7-11).
– Southern Miss enters the season with 11 newcomers, tying for fifth in the country. The Golden Eagles lost a transformative senior class that featured Cortez Edwards (all-time steals leader; fourth member of 1,000-point, 500-rebound and 200-assist club), Tyree Griffin (434 assists in two years, No. 3 in school history), Kevin Holland (No. 5 in games started, No. 7 in three-point makes) as well as Dominic Magee and Anfernee Hampton.Â
– LaDavius Draine was Southern Miss' first Sixth-Player of the Year since Neil Watson in 2011-12, and his 78 triples were No. 6 in single-season school history. He was 8-for-14 in the C-USA Tourney, including 6-for-8 (career-high 33 minutes) against Marshall His 48.6 percent clip in C-USA play trailed only teammate Kevin Holland. He has 35 more three-pointers than any other sophomore at USM, and his 46.4 percentage bested Casey Fisher (46.3 in 1987-88) for the best single-season deep clip at the school.
– Harper-Baker was shooting 41.9 percent (18-for-43) at the foul line before going 8-for-12 in a clutch win over UAB on Jan. 12. That game begun what has now amounted to a 73.7 percent stretch (42-for-57). In C-USA play, he was third for both shooting (58.2 percent) and rebounding (8.9 per game). His 8.0 rebounds per game led the team.
– One notable returner looking to prove his abilities even more is sophomore Gabe Watson, who had four double-digit scoring games last season. The Golden Eagles won the first three of those (at SMU, Middle Tennessee and at FIU), and he posted a career-high 17 at Longwood in the finale.Â
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Fans can catch the game on ESPN Plus and the Southern Miss Learfield IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel). Mike Coulter will have the radio call.
The Jaguars were tabbed as the preseason Sun Belt favorites and are coming off an 82-51 victory over Pikeville on Wednesday. Southern Miss leads the all-time series 26-17.
Game Notes
– Southern Miss opened the Jay Ladner era Tuesday with a 90-71 victory over Delta State. The Hattiesburg native, Southern Miss graduate and two-sport Golden Eagle letterwinner arrived from Southeastern Louisiana, where he inherited NCAA sanctions and helped the Lions to a Southland Conference regular-season title in 2017-18, his fourth year at the helm.
– The squad led 49-29 at the half and was paced by Boban Jacdonmi's career night of 29 points and 10 rebounds. By comparison, the redshirt-senior had 30 points and 13 rebounds in 23 games last season. It was the highest-scoring season opener by a Golden Eagle since Charles Gaines had 33 against Alcorn in 2012. Jay Malone also had 10 of the team's 27 assists in his debut.
– Ladner and second-year South Alabama head coach Richie Riley are quite familiar with each other from their Southland Conference days. Ladner was 3-1 against Nicholls from the 2016-18 seasons, in which his teams shot 44.1 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from long range, while Riley's squads were limited to 40.6 and 28 percent, respectively. South Alabama, the preseason Sun Belt favorite, was third last season in both field-goal percentage and three-point shooting.
– In last year's meeting between the teams, Southern Miss raced out to a 17-1 lead before the Jaguars took the lead with less than 10 minutes left. The Black and Gold clamped down late, thanks to Leonard Harper-Baker's then-career-highs of 18 points and nine rebounds, to win 71-67. Other key factors included a 27-7 advantage in points off turnovers, as Southern Miss forced 17 and committed only five. Jaguar grad transfer Kory Holden also went 8-for-10 on three-pointers off the bench.
– Last year, Southern Miss (CBI) made its first postseason appearance since 2012 and seventh since 2001. The Golden Eagles, still under NCAA sanctions from the vacated 2012-14 seasons, have won 36 games the last two years, each time making the Conference USA semifinals and defeating the defending champ in the process. The Golden Eagles will formally get over its probation on Feb. 1, 2020. Over the past five years, Southern Miss joined only Florida A&M and Saint Louis as teams to perfectly improve its league win total each season (3-5-6-7-11).
– Southern Miss enters the season with 11 newcomers, tying for fifth in the country. The Golden Eagles lost a transformative senior class that featured Cortez Edwards (all-time steals leader; fourth member of 1,000-point, 500-rebound and 200-assist club), Tyree Griffin (434 assists in two years, No. 3 in school history), Kevin Holland (No. 5 in games started, No. 7 in three-point makes) as well as Dominic Magee and Anfernee Hampton.Â
– LaDavius Draine was Southern Miss' first Sixth-Player of the Year since Neil Watson in 2011-12, and his 78 triples were No. 6 in single-season school history. He was 8-for-14 in the C-USA Tourney, including 6-for-8 (career-high 33 minutes) against Marshall His 48.6 percent clip in C-USA play trailed only teammate Kevin Holland. He has 35 more three-pointers than any other sophomore at USM, and his 46.4 percentage bested Casey Fisher (46.3 in 1987-88) for the best single-season deep clip at the school.
– Harper-Baker was shooting 41.9 percent (18-for-43) at the foul line before going 8-for-12 in a clutch win over UAB on Jan. 12. That game begun what has now amounted to a 73.7 percent stretch (42-for-57). In C-USA play, he was third for both shooting (58.2 percent) and rebounding (8.9 per game). His 8.0 rebounds per game led the team.
– One notable returner looking to prove his abilities even more is sophomore Gabe Watson, who had four double-digit scoring games last season. The Golden Eagles won the first three of those (at SMU, Middle Tennessee and at FIU), and he posted a career-high 17 at Longwood in the finale.Â
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