Special to the Item
The Picayune Item
HATTIESBURG — The Southern Miss men's basketball team will open the 2010 GMC Sierra in the first round against Tulane in Tulsa, Okla. The Golden Eagle earned the sixth-seed and will face the 11th-seeded Green Wave on Wednesday, March 10 at 2:30 p.m. with the winner facing third seed UAB on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
Southern Miss and Tulane will meet for the 71st time, with the Green Wave holding a 40-30 advantage. It will also be the third meeting between the teams this season with the Golden Eagles winning the first two. However, this will be the first meeting between the two schools in the Conference USA Tournament. They did meet in the first round of the 1994 Metro Conference Tournament, with the Golden Eagles taking a 79-60 victory. Southern Miss has won five of the last six games. In neutral site games, Tulane holds a 2-1 record. This year, Southern Miss won 58-40, in New Orleans, before taking a 66-57 victory in Hattiesburg.
Southern Miss enters Conference USA Tournament with an 18-12 record after closing the regular season with a 75-65 victory at East Carolina.
Junior R.L. Horton led Southern Miss with 14 points. Junior Gary Flowers and sophomore Angelo Johnson each had 13 points. Junior Sai'Quon Stone had 12 points, including 10-of-12 from the line, and had six rebounds. Junior Torye Pelham added 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Flowers is in tenth-place in Conference USA with 14.7 points. He is also tenth in field goal percentage, connecting on 47.2-percent of his shots, seventh in rebounding with 7.9 boards per game and fourth in blocks (1.8).
Johnson is second on the team with 9.7 points per game. He is also tops in the league in free throw percentage, connecting on 82.4-percent of his shots from the charity stripe. Sophomore guard Maurice Bolden is scoring 9.3 points, while junior guard R.L. Horton is also contributing 9.0 points.
Head coach Larry Eustachy is in his sixth season at the helm of the Southern Miss men's basketball program. He has compiled a 93-92 (.503) record during his time as head coach. In 18 years, Eustachy has an overall record of 353-237 (.598).
Tulane enters the conference tournament with an 8-21 record after defeating Houston in its regular seasonfinale, 79-76 on Saturday night.
