Men’s Basketball Gives Head Coach Jay Ladner a Birthday Win

Tylik Weeks led the Golden Eagles with 19 points, capped with a highlight-reel dunk as the clock hit zero. Isaac Taveras scored 18 points and Dylan Brumfield, who tossed Weeks the alley-oop pass off the backboard, finished with 13 points.

Southern Miss moved to 3-1 all-time against Grambling and to 2-0 in Hattiesburg.

In the two games against Grambling this season, the Golden Eagles had 27 steals after the 12 tonight. They had 15 in the first meeting on Nov. 13.  The seven blocks by Southern Miss tonight are the second highest in a single game this season after having nine against North Florida.  While Southern Miss is 3-0 at Reed Green Coliseum this season, the Golden Eagles are 38-9 since the start of the 2022-23 campaign.

The Golden Eagles are 4-0 when holding their opponents to fewer than 70 points this season. On the flip side, Southern Miss is 1-1 when scoring fewer than 70 points and forced three shot-clock violations to bring its season total to six.

Monday’s win is the first for Head Coach Jay Ladner on his birthday since becoming the head coach at Southern Miss.

Isaac Taveras reached double-digit points for the ninth time this season after scoring 18 tonight.

Dylan Brumfield’s 13 points put him in double figures for the third time this season and for the 35th time in his career.  Brumfield has scored 10+ in three of the last six games and went 6-for-6 from the floor, giving him the best shooting percentage by a Golden Eagle this season when making at least six field goals.

Curt Lewis went 2-for-5 from deep to bring his season total to 17 made three-pointers and has hit at least two three-pointers in each of the last four games.  Fallou Diagne hit his first deep ball since the William Carey game. Three of his four three-pointers this season have come at Reed Green Coliseum.  Weeks scored 19 points to reach double figures for the eighth time and the seventh-straight game.

The hometown kid Dylan Brumfield scored Southern Miss’ first four points of the game, but the Golden Eagles went without a field goal for the next six minutes. Grambling State didn’t get much better luck as they struggled shooting the ball – the Tigers started the game 2-for-10.

Grambling hit a pair of three-pointers to silence The Greenhouse crowd, going ahead by as many as five. Southern Miss cut into that five-point lead four times and used a Fallou Diagne three-pointer as the clock was on one second before the half to cut it to 31-29 at the break.

Grambling went 4-for-7 from deep in the first half as Diagne made the only three-pointer for the Golden Eagles on seven attempts. Isaac Taveras, Tylik Weeks, and Brumfield each had eight points to lead all scorers.

Southern Miss and Grambling traded leads for most of the second half, with the Tigers holding a five-point lead with 7:50 to play. After that, Taveras flipped a switch and went on a solo 6-0 run in about 45 seconds to give the Golden Eagles the lead. The Tigers answered with a run of their own. After they regained the lead, the game featured three ties and three lead changes over the final four minutes.

The big-time run started with a Tegra Izay free throw that tied the game at 57-all at the 2:24 mark. From there, Southern Miss went on to score 12 of the final 15 points. With Grambling hanging onto a two-point lead with a minute to play, Curt Lewis hit a corner three that sent the Coliseum faithful into a frenzy.

Lewis’ basket started a 9-0 run that featured big free throws from Izay and Weeks. The final stamp came with a pass off the backboard from Brumfield to Weeks with a second left on the clock.

The win moved Southern Miss to 38-9 at Reed Green Coliseum since the start of the 2022-23 season. It also gave the Golden Eagles their fifth win in the last six games. Southern Miss went 14-for-25 from the floor in the second half as it locked up the third home win of the season.

Southern Miss travels to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Saturday to take on Ole Miss for the third-straight season. Tip-off from Biloxi is scheduled for 2 p.m. on SEC Network. Fans can follow @SouthernMissMBB on social media to get the latest Golden Eagle news.