Southern Miss Drops East Carolina, 72-60

Filed under Game Recap on January 26th, 2012

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On January 25th in Greenville the Golden Eagles beat the Pirates, 72-60, in C-USA play.

The Golden Eagles performed much better than they were expected to, and they were able come away with a big win. Southern Miss was ranked much higher in the RPI, #15 to #210. The Golden Eagles played the Pirates earlier this season, and won that game 78-76.

Southern Miss beat East Carolina with a significant edge in rebounding while also coming out ahead in three pointers.

Southern Miss used its advantage on the boards to generate more possessions and second-chance shots with a total of 43 rebounds to their 26. Southern Miss drained too many threes for East Carolina to recover from, with 21 points compared to 12.

Johnathan Mills was the leading scorer for the Golden Eagles with 13 points in 23 minutes. Neil Watson led everyone with nine assists.

USM Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A Neil Watson 33 11 2 9 3 1 2 A Darnell Dodson 14 10 6 0 0 0 0 A Torye Pelham 12 10 2 1 1 1 1 A Cedric Jenkins 12 6 6 0 0 0 0 A Johnathan Mills 23 13 8 0 2 0 2 B Maurice Bolden 30 8 11 0 0 1 3 B LaShay Page 40 12 1 0 0 0 1 C Angelo Johnson 29 2 5 3 0 0 3 - Rashard McGill 7 0 0 0 0 0 0

ECU Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A+ Darrius Morrow 40 14 11 3 1 5 1 A Erin Straughn 34 14 4 0 1 2 0 B+ Miguel Paul 30 21 1 4 1 0 5 C+ Corvonn Gaines 15 2 3 2 1 0 1 C Maurice Kemp 19 2 1 2 1 0 0 D+ P. Roberts-Campbell 12 2 1 0 0 1 1 D+ Shamarr Bowden 29 5 1 0 0 0 2 - Darius Morales 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 F Robert Sampson 15 0 1 0 0 0 3

The Golden Eagles are now 18-3, in what is usually the toughest part of the season. They move up to 1st in the C-USA, and their conference record improves to 5-1. They've also won 3 in a row.

Next up is UCF on the road on January 28th.

• This season Southern Miss has won 87% of the time (7-1) when Maurice Bolden plays 30 minutes or more, 100% of the time (4-0) when Neil Watson has 9 assists or more, and 85% of the time (6-1) when Angelo Johnson has 5 rebounds or more.
• Southern Miss has turned the ball over less than their opponents for the past 9 games.
• Maurice Bolden has led the team in rebounding in 7 out of 21 games this season.
• USM has won 100% of the time this season (5-0) when opponents record 26 or fewer rebounds.
• USM beat the spread by 8.5 points. That makes the 9th time this season the Golden Eagles have beat the spread.

• Darrius Morrow recorded a double-double. It was his 3rd this season and 15th of his career.
• This loss extended the Pirates losing streak to 6 games.
• Miguel Paul has led the team in scoring 11 times in 19 games this season.
• Darrius Morrow recorded a team season high in blocks with 5.
• Darrius Morrow set a career high with 5 blocks.

Check out the complete Games Notes

Tags: Jonathan Mills, Neil Watson