Southern Miss Hits the Road for Tuesday Game at Lamar

Tuesday, December 15

Beaumont, TX

7 p.m.

Southern Miss

Lamar

Southern Miss Hits the Road for Tuesday Game at Lamar

12/14/2020 2:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

HATTIESBURG, Miss.-- The Golden Eagle men's basketball team has hit the road for Beaumont, Texas, where it will take on Lamar on Tuesday (7 p.m.).

Fans can stream the game through ESPN Plus, while John Cox will also carry the action through the Southern Miss Learfield IMG Sports Network.

NOTABLE
– The Golden Eagles played arguably their best game of the season, but a lucky bounce on South Alabama's winning three-point attempt sank at the buzzer. Southern Miss led 37-31 at the half and 63-56 with six minutes to play, thanks to a 12-2 run that featured four consecutive triples. The Golden Eagles' 15 three-pointers tied for fifth in school history after having 14 through the first three games.

– Freshman Jaron Pierre Jr. scored 11 of the team's first 13 points en route to a 25-point, 10-rebound performance. It was the highest-scoring game by a Southern Miss freshman since R.L. Horton in December 2007 and the first frosh double-double since Norville Carey in January 2013. Pierre also became the ninth different starter for the Black and Gold this year.

– Pierre was also the team's top scorer against Tulane with 11 points off the bench. Southern Miss then scored one point fewer in the first half, thanks to eight treys, than they had that entire contest. Twenty-one of the 27 field goals were assisted, but 19 turnovers, and South Alabama shooting 68 percent in the second half, did not help their case.

– For his efforts, Pierre was named C-USA's Freshman of the Week (18.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg). He is the first weekly honoree for the Golden Eagles since Leonard Harper-Baker in January 2019, and the first freshman to achieve one since D.J. Newbill in February 2011.

– A fast start in Saturday's game would be key to the team's success. Eight of Jay Ladner's 10 wins have come when leading or tied at the half. In the Golden Eagles' two defeats this year, it trailed 21-9 and 22-9 to Jacksonville and Tulane, respectively. Against South Alabama, in which Southern Miss did lead for 33:29 before ultimately falling, it started 16-6.

– Artur Konontsuk provided 12 points off the bench, but the five-game streak of his double-figure scoring games coinciding with Southern Miss wins came to an end. Tae Hardy also acted in reserve duty for the first time of the year but provided a team season-high eight assists to no turnovers.

– LaDavius Draine enters the game with 961 points while seeking to become the program's 38th member of the 1,000-point club. The most-recent addition was Cortez Edwards, who reached the milestone in November 2018 at Troy. Draine also has 187 three-pointers to his name, which is seven away from tying Casey Fisher (1984-88). Bernard Haslett holds the record (316 from 1990-94).

– Southern Miss has out-rebounded three of its four opponents this year, with Tyler Stevenson leading the way at 7.8 per game. He is up from 2.3 and 6.6 in the previous years and leading the team with a 63.3 field-goal percentage. Staying on the shooting route, Southern Miss was 8-0 under Ladner when hitting above 50 percent before the Jaguars snapped it.

– Ladner and Lamar head coach Tic Price are 3-3 against each other, with Ladner getting the upper-hand in their last two meetings when he was at Southeastern Louisiana. This is the first meeting between the programs since Southern Miss' victory in Alaska to begin the 2005-06 season, but they did play 12 times from 1959-77. Lamar, making its home debut, went 10-5 there last year and is 46-14 dating back to the 2016-17 season.

– The two teams' lone mutual opponent so far is Tulane. Lamar led the Green Wave 30-21 at the break, holding them to 5-for-27 shooting, before getting outscored 45-27 the rest of the way. The Cardinals have four averaging double-figure scoring but 24.6 percent from deep.