The Tulane Green Wave defeated the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles, 79-64, in a Conference USA game at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg, Miss. Saturday. Attendance was announced at 4,006.
The Green Wave evened their record at 10-10 overall, 3-5 in C-USA. Tulane has won two of its
last three games. USM's record fell to 14-7 overall and 4-4 in conference play.
The Wave was led by freshman guard Kevin Sims, whose career-high 23 points led all scorers.
David Gomez scored 18 points and grabbed 4 rebounds for the Green Wave, while senior Chris Moore added 16 points and 10 rebounds. Donnie Stith contributed 4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals,
and 5 blocked shots in 26 minutes before fouling out.
The Golden Eagles were led by Jeremy Wise with 19 points, and Sai'Quon Stone with 18 points.
Courtney Beasley added 14 points in the losing effort for the Eagles.
Tulane shot 57.5 percent from the floor, and a sizzling 68.4 percent in the first half, In the second half the Green Wave cooled off to shoot only 47.6 percent from the floor. But the Wave hit 14-of-20 shots from the free throw line in posting the 15-point victory.
Tulane held USM to 41.4 shooting percentage in the first half, and took a 41-31 lead into the
locker room at half time. In the second half the Green Wave defense clamped down to hold
the Eagles to 30 percent from the floor. For the game Southern Miss connected on 35.6 percent
of their shots from the floor.
For the game the Golden Eagles were a pitiful
1-of-10 from behind the three-point line.
Tulane opened the game with 8 unanswered points and USM never led. The Eagles pulled within
2 points at 8-6 on a dunk by Courtney Beasley but were never able to get that close again.
Tulane resumes play Wednesday, Feb. 9, when they host C-USA rival Texas El-Paso. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. A football signing day celebration in the second floor ballroom of the new Lavin-Bernick Center from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. will precede the game.