USM breaks strong Raider defense in Hattiesburg

Friday, January 15

Hattiesburg, MS

7:00 PM

Middle Tennessee

-36,12 CUSA

Southern Miss

-66,23 CUSA

Middle Tennessee

Southern Miss.

1/15/2021 8:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Season Stats (PDF)Box Score (PDF)

By: @MTAthletics

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – It was all Golden Eagles on the first night of a two-game swing in Hattiesburg Friday night as the home team ran away with an 84-54 win.

Middle Tennessee failed to bring the same defensive intensity that helped it hold a high-scoring FIU offense to a season-low 56 points last Saturday, and without the services of leading scorer Dontrell Shuler they struggled to keep up on the offensive end in Reed-Green Coliseum as they gave up a season-high 84 points to Southern Miss.

After entering the game with the second best 3-point field goal percentage defense (.232) in the nation, MT allowed USM to convert on 11 of its 23 (.478) attempts from downtown. The Blue Raiders shot 18 of 61 (.295) from the field and just 7 of 26 (.269) from beyond the arc on the night.

"We were not very good really in anything we did tonight," Head Coach Nick McDevitt said. "We didn't guard like we've been guarding all year long. Five team fouls over a 40-minute game speaks to the fact that we weren't even close enough to guard them."

Senior Donovan Sims, coming off a team-leading 15-point performance last Saturday against FIU, got the Blue Raiders on the board with a corner three on the first trip down the floor.

Middle Tennessee took a 6-2 lead moments later on a fast break triple by Jordan Davis, but the Golden Eagles would settle in and make it a back-and-forth affair through the first two media timeouts.

As the first half game clock rolled under nine minutes, McDevitt's bunch quickly found themselves down 20-12. The Blue Raider offense provided an answer to pull within three, but Southern Miss continued to roll on both ends as the first half wore on.

Coming out of the break trailing 38-22, the Raiders needed a spark. After a couple of quick MT baskets, however, it was USM who came out hot just as they went into the locker room.

Before the Blue Raiders could blink, they were down 20 on the road to the Golden Eagles with not much going their way.

The 3-pointers would continue to fall for Southern Miss while Middle Tennessee couldn't buy one, crushing any hope of a big comeback in Hattiesburg.

The Blue Raiders will look to reverse their fortunes in game two, as they face the Golden Eagles again Saturday at 4:00 p.m. on ESPN+.

"We have to be smart and have a short memory after a game like this," McDevitt added. "We're going to look at the film and see the things that got us beat tonight, and then we have to come out and do something about it tomorrow."