Southern Miss Men’s Basketball Romps Lamar 95-59

Behind its 21 steals, the Southern Miss (9-1, 0-0 SBC) men’s basketball team cruised to a 95-59 win over Lamar (4-6, 0-0 Southland) on Saturday afternoon at Reed Green Coliseum. The Golden Eagles are off to the seventh 9-1 start in program history.

Austin Crowley paced Southern Miss in scoring with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting. The West Point product knocked down four three-pointers as the Golden Eagles hit a season-high 12. Crowley’s first basketball 12 seconds into the game helped start a 17-1 run to open the contest.

Southern Miss ultimately jumped to a 23-6 lead by the under-12 media timeout. The lead was pushed to 25 when Victor Hart slammed home a Crowley pass that came off a steal. The lead then peaked at 30 when GianFranco Grafals came off the bench and took a missed rebound to the rim. Felipe Haase (10) and Crowley (11) led Southern Miss in scoring over the first 20 minutes.

The Golden Eagle defense forced 13 turnovers in the first half and the 21 total steals is tied for the fourth most in a single game in program history. Mo Arnold from Picayune and Crowley each had three in the first half.

Lamar showed life in the opening minutes of the second half that caused Jay Ladner to burn an early timeout, but Donovan Ivory silenced the Cardinal bench shortly after with a deep three-point. Ivory then extended the lead to 40 when he stole the ball and put in an easy layup.

After Ladner emptied the bench with six minutes to play, Tate Ryder took a Tyler Morman pass to the rim. His basket caused the Golden Eagle faithful to erupt after Ryder put them up 46. Ryder later dribbled out the clock that put the stamp on Southern Miss’ 36-point win.

Hart finished with 11 points and two rebounds in 13 minutes of action. DeAndre Pinckney added nine points and six rebounds. Donovan Ivory scored 16 points and added three steals. Felipe Haase shot 5 for 6, including 2 for 3 from beyond the arc to finish with 12 points.

“This is a process, the game today and Tuesday is a process,” said University of Southern Miss Men’s Basketball Coach Jay Ladner.  “We want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season in the conference tournament.”

As a team, Southern Miss shot 50.7 percent from the floor and 41.4 percent from deep. Southern Miss is off to its seventh 9-1 start in program history and the 21 steals is tied for the fourth most in a single game. Ten different Golden Eagles had at least one steal.

Southern Miss will play Lamar again on Tuesday, Dec. 13. The Golden Eagles will travel to Beaumont, Texas for a 7 p.m. tip.