Southern Miss Gets 78-65 Win Over UCF

Filed under Game Recap on January 29th, 2012

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On January 28th in hostile territory, the Golden Eagles beat the Knights, 78-65.

This was an unexpected win for the Golden Eagles over a very good team. In terms of RPI ranking, Southern Miss was the better team, #13 to #65. The Golden Eagles are a very strong team playing on the road, and now that record is 7-2. Last year, Southern Miss was 1-1 against UCF. Over the last four years, the Golden Eagles have a record of 5-3 with a record of 1-2 at UCF Arena.

Southern Miss was able to best UCF in three pointers and turnover margin.

Southern Miss drained threes, hitting a total of 21 points from beyond the arc compared to 12 by UCF. The Golden Eagles managed the ball very well, only turning it over 12 times.

Neil Watson put up the most points against the Knights with 23 on 45% shooting from the floor in 36 minutes, 12 of those points coming from three-point range. Watson also led everyone with six assists. Watson had a remarkable game, his team-high scoring total easily surpassed his 11.3 point season average.

USM Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A+ Darnell Dodson 25 22 8 1 1 0 1 A Neil Watson 36 23 1 6 0 0 3 A Torye Pelham 14 4 6 1 2 3 2 B+ Angelo Johnson 38 9 3 3 1 0 1 B Johnathan Mills 26 7 6 0 0 0 0 C+ Maurice Bolden 15 8 2 0 0 0 2 C Cedric Jenkins 7 2 1 1 0 0 0 C LaShay Page 33 3 5 1 2 0 2 - Rashard McGill 6 0 1 0 0 0 0

UCF Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A Keith Clanton 30 21 6 0 1 2 4 B Josh Crittle 19 8 3 1 0 1 0 B Isaiah Sykes 36 7 7 5 0 0 3 B- Marcus Jordan 32 11 3 2 0 0 1 B- T. Spurlock 29 5 8 1 0 0 0 C+ A.J. Rompza 32 8 1 4 3 0 4 C+ P.J. Gaynor 17 5 4 0 0 1 2 - Kasey Wilson 5 0 0 0 0 0 1

The Golden Eagles have a record of 19-3. They're still 1st in the C-USA and their conference record improves to 6-1. They're now 7-3 against the RPI Top 100 (UCF #65). They're currently on a 4 game run.

Up next the Golden Eagles face Memphis at home on February 1st.

• USM has won 100% of the time this season (12-0) when opponents record 4 or fewer blocks.
• This marks the 1st 20-point game of Neil Watson's career.
• This season Southern Miss has won 82% of the time (14-3) when LaShay Page plays 33 minutes or more, 100% of the time (6-0) when Neil Watson has 6 assists or more, and 75% of the time (9-3) when Johnathan Mills has 6 rebounds or more.
• Neil Watson tallied a team season high in free throws made with 9 and free throws attempted with 12.
• Darnell Dodson has led the team in rebounding in 4 out of 22 games this season.

• The top two rebounders (Tristan Spurlock and Isaiah Sykes) accounted for 45.4% of the rebounds.
• UCF lost and did not cover the spread.
• Keith Clanton has led the team in scoring 10 times in 21 games this season.
• This marks the 12th 20-point game of Keith Clanton's career.
• This was the 2nd foul out of the season for Keith Clanton.

Check out the complete Games Notes

Tags: Neil Watson