Pirates drop 78-76 heartbreaker in CUSA opener at Southern Miss

Golden Eagles end East Carolina’s five-game win streak

East Carolina rallied from a 12-point second deficit, but in the end it gave Southern Miss too many second chances as the Pirates suffered a 78-76 setback to the Golden Eagles on Wednesday night in Hattiesburg.

The Pirates (9-5, 0-1), who had their five-game win streak snapped, shot 52.9 percent (27-of-51) for the game—their highest mark of the season versus Division I competition—after hitting just one of their first eight from the floor. Jeff Lebo’s club’s first field goal didn’t come until a little over four minutes into the contest.

However, ECU would play from behind the entire night as it never led.

Southern Miss (14-2, 1-0), which won its tenth straight for the first time since the 1990-91 campaign, started quickly behind the hot hand of LaShay Page and led 20-10 after a Watson floater with 11:41 remaining.

Jeff Lebo’s club responded with a 10-1 run and trailed just 21-20 after a three-pointer from Miguel Paul with just under ten minutes left.

From that point, the Golden Eagles pushed their lead back to double figures as Torye Pelham picked up a loose ball under the basket and put it in to make it 32-22, USM, at the 5:05 mark.

Darrius Morrow, who scored a game-high 23 points in 37 minutes, managed to produce a couple three-point plays to get ECU within two at 37-35 with 2:20 to play.

After carrying a 41-37 lead into the locker room, the Golden Eagles extended their advantage to 12 when Darnell Dodson sunk two free throws with 11:21 left.

Seemingly on the ropes, ECU received a pair of three from Paris Roberts-Campbell to highlight a 12-0 run to even the score at 64 with just under six left.

Just 15 seconds later, Jonathan Mills converted the first of two free throws to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good.

The Pirates, who fell behind by as many as five after that, had multiple chances down the stretch. However, they couldn’t get that go-ahead basket or critical defensive rebound in crunch time.

USM missed consecutive front ends of one and one’s in the final 15 seconds, but it got the offensive rebound both times. Finally, Neil Watson hit a pair to make it 76-72.

ECU’s Paul pulled his team back within one with a three-point play with 6.5 seconds remaining.

Maurice Bolden built the USM lead back to three with a pair of free throws; therefore, the Golden Eagles intentionally fouled Paul to take away the opportunity for a game-tying three-point attempt for the Pirates.

The junior point guard made the first, and Pelham grabbed the rebound off the intentional miss to allow USM to dribble out the remaining 2.5 seconds.

Miguel Paul and Maurice Kemp also reached double figures for ECU. Paul had 19 points and ten assists while Kemp totaled 14 points and a team-high six boards. Paris Roberts-Campbell finished with nine after going 3-of-5 from behind the arc.

LaShay Page, who was 6-of-11 from three, paced Southern Miss with his 20-point performance. Darnell Dodson, Neil Watson, and Maurice Bolden also scored in double figures for the Golden Eagles. Dodson had 17 while Watson and Bolden tallied 11 and 10, respectively.

While Larry Eustachy’s team didn’t shoot it as well as the Pirates, they took better care of the basketball and used 15 offensive rebounds (as opposed to ECU’s five) to hold a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points.

Southern Miss was 21-of-28 from the free throw line while ECU was 15-of-16.

The Pirates will now return home to welcome UCF to Williams Arena-Minges Coliseum on Saturday. USM will travel to Tulane.