Men's Basketball Opens New Year at ULM on Thursday

Thursday, January 1

Monroe, LA

4 PM

Southern Miss

ULM

Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com

Men's Basketball Opens New Year at ULM on Thursday

12/31/2025 2:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Southern Miss Notes ULM Notes

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss (7-7, 1-1 Sun Belt) continues its swing through Louisiana and returns to Sun Belt action on Thursday as it opens the new year at ULM (3-11, 0-2 Sun Belt). The old rivals will square off for the 46th time overall at 4 p.m. inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum in Monroe, La.

Game 15: Southern Miss (7-7, 1-1 Sun Belt) at ULM (3-11, 0-2 Sun Belt)
Thursday, January 1 at 4 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: Southern Miss Radio Network
Fant-Ewing Coliseum (7,000)
Fans can listen on the Southern Miss Radio Network, Southern Miss Game Day App, or their local Southern Miss Network affiliate to hear John Cox on the call. The game will air on ESPN+ with Sean Fox (pxp) and Mike Vining (color).

NEWS AND NOTES
- Tylik Weeks upped his scoring average to 17.3 points per game after scoring 25 against Arkansas State before the holiday break. Brewer Carruth added a career-high 16 points in the seven-point loss to preseason favorites Arkansas State
- Southern Miss won its Sun Belt opener against Louisiana, 62-54, in a low-scoring affair. Israel Hart dropped a season-best 17 points in the win
- Weeks posted his first career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds against Ole Miss — the rebound total was a career best
- The Golden Eagles picked up a 68-60 win over Grambling on last Monday, with Southern Miss coming back from a halftime deficit
- Weeks was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week as he took home MVP honors at the Pensacola Invitational
- Outside of an 11-point deficit at the half against North Florida, Southern Miss dominated the Pensacola Invitational and took home its second MTE title under Jay Ladner
- Weeks scored 37 points in the win over North Florida, which was the 11th-most in program history and the second-most by any Sun Belt player since the 2022-23 season
- Southern Miss fell on the road at South Carolina on Nov. 9 as the Gamecocks used a three-point barrage to finish the comeback in overtime. Weeks dropped a career-high 20 points, while Taveras scored 25 and Israel Hart had 17
- Felipe Patino went off for 18 points on six three-pointers in the win over Tougaloo on Nov. 6. Taveras produced a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double and Israel Hart had 11 points
- The Golden Eagles return only four players from last season: Dalyn Brandon, Brewer Carruth, Tegra Izay, Jett Montgomery
- Ladner and Co. brought in 14 newcomers during the offseason: DJahi Binet, Dylan Brumfield, Robert Cowherd, Fallou Diagne, IJ Ezuma, Israel Hart, Blake Lander, Curt Lewis, Felipe Patino, EJ Paymon, Isaac Taveras, Chiante' Tramble, Chandler Watts, Tylik Weeks
- The 2025-26 season marks the 106th season of Southern Miss basketball and the 61st season inside Reed Green Coliseum
- Southern Miss was voted 12th in the preseason poll after finishing in 12th last season in the league standings

ABOUT THE OPPONENT
-ULM is off to a 3-11 start with wins over Rust, Mississippi Valley and Arkansas Baptist. The Warhawks took South Alabama to double overtime in the Sun Belt opener before losing by four. ULM then lost to Louisiana two days after Southern Miss opened league play with a win over the Cajuns
- MJ Russell leads the pack in scoring, averaging 17.1 points, placing him fifth in the Sun Belt. He also leads the team in blocks (1.1) and minutes (36.3). Krystian Lewis averages three assists and 1.7 steals to lead the team. Lavell Brodnexhas collected 106 rebounds across 11 games, averaging 9.6 to lead the Warhawks and rank second in the conference. Brodnex leads the conference in offensive rebounds (3.6) and is second in defensive rebounds (6.2)
- On December 17 against South Alabama, ULM hit 19 three-pointers, 12 coming in the first half. The 19 triples is a team-high across all Sun Belt teams this season, Krystian Lewis claiming the Sun Belt high with eight triples on Wednesday.
- The Warhawks have 15 players from six different countries, including the U.S. Noted countries include: Nigeria, Poland, Spain, Russia and Latvia. Ayomide Bamisile takes the cake, being the farthest from home, as Monroe is 6,301 miles from Lagos, Nigeria. On the other side of things, junior Krystian Lewis is the basketball team's lone hometown resident, as he is from Monroe

SERIES HISTORY
- Thursday's meeting is the 46th all-time between the two schools and the eighth since joining the Sun Belt
- Southern Miss won the first six meetings starting in 1953 and are 27-18 overall in the series. The Golden Eagles are 7-12 when playing in Monroe and have won two of the last three there
- The Golden Eagles are 6-4 in the last 10 against the Warhawks and 4-2 in league play. Southern Miss lost the last game in Monroe last season, 81-74

HOME SWEET REED GREEN
- Southern Miss is 39-10 at The Greenhouse since the start of the 2022-23 season
- Southern Miss moved to 69-12 in home openers dating back to the 1956-56 season when the Golden Eagles fell to Louisiana Tech
- The first home-opening win for Southern Miss was against Tyndall Field (Fla.) to open the 1947-48 season
- The Golden Eagles are now 7-0 in home openers under Jay Ladner, while six of those have been double-digit wins

ON THIS DAY
Date: January 1
- Southern Miss is 1-3 when playing on New Year's Day. The Golden Eagles picked up a 56-49 win over Tulane in the 1999 season. The first New Year's Day game was at Dayton to kickoff 1952 -- The Flyers won that game 97-73.

THE VETERAN OF THE COUNTRY
- Curt Lewis enters the season as one of the oldest players in Division I basketball. The Louisville, Ky., product was born on May 19, 1999
- Below is a list of the oldest players in the country

Ramel Bethea, Green Bay - July 27, 1996
Nginyu Ngala, Kansas - April 3, 1999
Curt Lewis, Southern Miss - May 19, 1999
Ibrahim Olajuwon, FIU - May 26, 1999
Hunter Erickson, Hawaii - September 14, 1999
Bouna Kebe, Delaware - December 24, 1999

LOADED NON-CON SLATE
- Southern Miss has a loaded non-conference slate that includes only five home games
- Notable stops on the road include South Carolina, Miami (Fla.), Radford, and LSU
- Southern Miss will also play Ole Miss at the Coast Coliseum on Dec. 13
- Other non-conference games are Buffalo, Tougaloo, Grambling (two times), William Carey, North Florida, UT Martin/Prairie View A&M and the second MAC-SBC Challenge opponent in February

Single-game and season tickets are available via southernmiss.com/tickets, calling 1-800-844-TICK, or by visiting the Pat Ferlise Ticket Office during normal business hours.

Fans can follow @SouthernMissMBB on social media to get the latest Golden Eagle news.