By Brett Shweky/Editor
Southern Miss’ Leonard Harper-Baker scored a career-high 21 points to pace the Golden Eagles to an 89-73 victory over the FIU Panthers on Thursday, Jan. 31 at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.
Despite Willy Nunez Jr.’s 21 points off the bench, the Panthers (13-9, 4-5 Conference USA) dropped their second consecutive home game.
Nunez Jr. shot 7-of-13 from the three-point mark while Devon Andrews chipped in with 13 points.
The Golden Eagles (13-9, 5-5 C-USA) shot an eye-opening 63.3 percent from the field in the first half which lead to FIU to trail 47-38 at the halftime mark. Southern Miss finished the game shooting 59.4 percent from the floor.
Tyree Griffin and Cortez Edwards scored 18 points apiece for Southern Miss while Gabe Watson added 16.
“The frustration really stems from our lack of ability to string together stops,” said Panthers head coach Jeremy Ballard. “We took about five-to-six minutes before we even forced them to miss a shot at the start of the game. That was kind of a microcosm of the way the game would play out.”
FIU managed to cut Southern Miss’ lead to 49-47 as Elhadji Dieng scored on a layup with 14:28 remaining. The Golden Eagles would then score 10 of the next 12 points to force their lead back to double-digits.
Southern Miss controlled the lead for the remainder of the matchup and also held the Panthers 14 points under its 87 points-per-game average, which ranks fifth-best in the nation.
FIU’s Osasumwen Osaghae contributed with 12 points and nine rebounds while Antonio Daye Jr. added 12.
The Panthers will close out their three-game homestand on Feb. 2 at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center when they host the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
