2007 C-USA Basketball Tournament Recap: #3 Houston 62 - #6 USM 59

McKiver and Houston Hang On To Defeat Southern Miss, 62-59

Southern Miss’ rally fell short and Houston advanced to Friday’s semifinals after collecting a 62-59 win on Thursday in the CUSA Quarterfinals. Houston will now face cross-town-rival Rice, who defeated UCF in other quarterfinal action on Thursday. The Golden Eagles, who are now 20-11, will wait to see if it will receive a NIT bid on Monday.

The first half of this contest started out very sloppy, as both teams were unable to get in a rhythm. The half was filled with turnovers and a lot of plays in transition that created a lot of off balance shots.

Houston was not able to get going in the first half, shooting 2-of-13 (15 percent) from three. Robert McKiver accounted for both of those made attempts.

Jeremy Wise, who ended the game with 16 points, could not get it going in the first half. He finished the half with five points after shooting 2-of-9. Sai’Quion Stone also had five points before the break.

Southern Miss committed 11 first half turnovers and it was unable to contain the hot hand of McKiver. He scored 12 of the Cougars 23 first half points and finished the game with 28 points.

McKiver put Southern Miss in a hole early in the second half when he drained a three to put Cougars ahead by seven, which forced Larry Eustachy to burn a timeout and make some adjustments.

Following the timeout, Houston extended its lead to nine when McKiver converted a lay-up on a fast break. A turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass put the ball back in the hands of the Cougars and McKiver knocked down another three to push the lead to double figures at 31-18.

Houston started the second half with ten unanswered points after a steal and dunk by Robert Lee.

Southern Miss responded by scoring their first points of the second half with a 4-0 run, but McKiver answered with another three. The Golden Eagles would not go out with out a fight, as they went on a 7-0 run to put the deficit to seven. Marcus Malone’s three put UH up by ten.

Southern Miss slowly started chipping away at the lead, as they cut the deficit to two after back-to-back lay-ups by Jeremy Wise and Courtney Beasley.

Then the unthinkable happened when Southern Miss tied the game and the Golden Eagles took the lead after two free throws by Stone and a fast break dunk by Andre Stephens put Southern Miss up by four after a 13-3 run.

Houston woke up to score five unanswered to regain the lead after another three by Malone with under five minutes remaining. The two teams would exchange buckets and they remained tied until Houston scored four unanswered points to give the Cougars a four-point lead until Beasley was able to close the gap with a lay-up. Houston tried to regain their four-point lead with a lay-up that was rejected into his stands by Stephens with 45 seconds remaining.

Following two free throws, UH’s lead was back to four. USM’s Jeremy Wise then received a backcourt violation after losing control of the ball off of his foot.

The Cougars didn’t capitalize, as they missed the free throws. The Golden Eagles took advantage of the opportunity and cut their deficit to two after Dewayne Green’s hoop with 9.4 seconds remaining.

After Malone sunk one of two free throws, Southern Miss’ game-tying three-point attempt missed off the front of the rim.