SMU’s Shawn Williams (Left) talks with Nick Russell (Right) during a time out (Christopher Saul/The Daily Campus)

Southern Mississippi was able to rally from a huge deficit and beat the SMU Men’s Basketball team in Moody Coliseum, Wednesday night, 74-70 in a Conference USA match up.

SMU had a shot at the end to tie the game, but Nick Russell’s shot was short and Southern Miss grabbed the rebound to seal the win for the Golden Eagles, who dropped SMU to 1-3 in C-USA play.

At one point in the first half, SMU’s lead was 19 over Southern Miss, but the Mustangs let that lead diminish to just six at the end of the first half and never fully recovered. The Mustangs started slow in the second half, allowing Southern Miss to get up by 10 at one point due to multiple turnovers and a lack of energy.

“Their depth really hurt us, but this is probably the happiest I’ve been with our team all year. We got a little bit too quick offensively and they took advantage of that,” head coach Larry Brown said.

Even with sophomore Jalen Jones’ sixth double-double of the season and junior Shawn Williams hitting five of his eight three point attempts, SMU could not get anything going until late in the second half.

“We just got to keep learning and coaching and improving. I can deal with games like this. A lot of nights, win or lose and go home kind of discouraged, but I know what we got and have been dealt with these kids and they’re getting better,” Brown said.

At the beginning of the second half, Southern Miss got off to a hot start shooting and shots nearly 74 percent in the second half after shooting 32 percent in the first half. SMU just could not spot the three-point shot from the Golden Eagles as they were able to shoot at will, making nine of 15 attempts from three-point range.

“I can deal with three-point shots with a hand up. The straight line drives trouble me a little bit and I think when teams are making shots, you’ve got to be more patient on offense and that’s what I tried to tell them,” Brown said about the hot streak the Golden Eagles went on.

Jones led SMU with 20 points and also grabbed 12 rebounds in the game. Jones went off in the second half with 13 points and set the tone rebounding the entire night.

For Southern Miss, Dwayne Davis scored 17 points to extend their winning streak to six games. The Golden Eagles had three other players in double figures in the game as well despite being in the double bonus for a majority of the second half.
SMU’s next three games are on the road versus C-USA teams starting Saturday with UTEP at 3 p.m. The Mustangs next home game is Feb. 2 versus Houston at 3 p.m. CT.