HATTIESBURG, Miss. – UTSA trailed by 15 early and by as many as 17 in the second half before cutting the Southern Miss lead to three possessions with 2:12 to go, but the Golden Eagles made 17 free throws down the stretch to secure the 93-83 victory Saturday afternoon at Reed Green Coliseum.
Jhivvan Jackson scored a game-high 30 points and Deon Lyle poured in a season-high 21 points, hitting seven 3-pointers, to lead the Roadrunners (9-8, 2-2 C-USA) in the points column. George Willborn III also reached double-figures for the second straight game, finishing with 10 points in his 14 minutes.
Southern Miss (9-8, 2-2 Conference USA) was led by Kevin Holland's 23 points of a perfect 8 of 8 from the field, which included seven 3-pointers. Cortez Edwards posted a 20-point, 10-rebounds double-double, while Dominic Magee also finished with a double-double, totaling 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tyree Griffin scored 16 for the Golden Eagles and D'Angelo Richardson added 12 to round out the five Golden Eagles in double-figures.
Both UTSA (31 of 68) and Southern Miss (27 of 59) closed the contest shooting 46 percent from the field. The Golden Eagles shot 42 percent from beyond the arc, while UTSA made just 30 percent of its long-range attempts.
UTSA outrebounded Southern Miss 38-37 and outscored the Golden Eagles 34-26 in the paint.
UTSA fell behind 63-46 on a Holland three with 10:44 remaining in the contest and were down by 15 with 5:26 showing on the clock before an 8-2 run, which featured Giovanni De Nicolao and Keaton Wallace 3-pointers, trimmed the USM advantage to 74-65 at the 2:46 mark.
From there UTSA extended the game by fouling the Golden Eagles, getting the score as close at eight as Lyle made his sixth 3-pointer of the night. But, it was not to be as Southern Miss went 17 of 20 at the free-throw line to secure the victory.
UTSA trailed by 15 on the scoreboard less than eight minutes into the game, but the Roadrunners rallied with a 23-11 run over the next eight minutes to cut the Golden Eagles' lead to three at 30-27 as a Jackson connected on his second three of the game at the 4:24 mark. However, UTSA would only score once more throughout the remainder of the half as Southern Miss built its lead back to double-digits at 40-29 before the teams entered the locker rooms.
Southern Miss outshot the Roadrunners 47 percent to 39 percent in the opening 20 minutes, including a 40 percent to 21 percent advantage from beyond the arc.
Up next
The Roadrunners return home to the Convocation Center to start a three-game home stand. UTSA hosts FIU on Jan. 11, Florida Atlantic on Jan. 13 and UTEP on Jan. 20.
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