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MOBILE, Ala. – Southern Miss made 11 of 15 three-pointers in the first half and held off a late University of South Alabama charge in the second en route to a 67-54 men’s basketball win Wednesday night at the Mitchell Center.

The loss ends a three-game winning streak for USA, who falls to 4-3 on the year. USM records its third-straight victory in the series and improves to 6-2.

The Golden Eagles finished the contest with a 14-for-25 performance from beyond the arc. Neil Watson went 5-for-6 from downtown, LaShay Page went 4-for-9 and Maurice Bolden went 3-for-6.

USA’s last two opponents converted just 19.4 percent from long range. The 14 triples are the most by an opponent since Western Kentucky hit 14 on Feb. 18, 2010.

“I think there’s just one stat anybody has got to look at,” USA head coach Ronnie Arrow said in regards to USM’s long-range shooting. “We just didn’t guard the 3-point line. Until we go and execute our game plan we can’t get done the things that we want to do. We said LaShay Page, Maurice Bolden and Angelo Johnson can shoot the ball, and evidently I didn’t do a good enough job of convincing our guys that they can do that because I think we challenged some of them, but for the majority of them they were wide open.”

Southern Miss twice hit four consecutive 3-pointers in the first half. The initial occasion allowed USM to open up a double-digit lead at the 7:43 mark. Later, the Golden Eagles ended the half with five unanswered field goals, the final four coming from behind the arc, to stretch a seven-point lead into a commanding 21-point edge at halftime.

Watson started the barrage with 2:05 left in the half, followed by back-to-back treys from Page. Watson finished it off with another long-range toss at the buzzer.

“We’ve got real good shooters,” said USM head coach Larry Eustachy. “Torye Pelham can hit a three. Maurice Bolden, obviously, can hit a three. We’ve got five guys, some starting and some right off the bench that can make three-point shots. It’s just tough to guard that many shooters on the court at once. I don’t think it was as much about what South Alabama was doing; I just think we got into a rhythm.”

Amazingly, USM shot far better from outside the arc than inside it in the first half, converting 11 of 15 from downtown but just 2 of 14 on 2-point attempts.

The opening of the second half was more of the same as the Golden Eagles hit three of their first four field goal attempts, including an old-fashioned three-point play from Bolden just over two minutes in to stretch the lead to 47-20.

South Alabama answered with a 15-4 run, making six of its next seven shots to get within 16. The Jags worked the ball inside, getting 12 of those points in the paint. Senior Antione Lundy (Saginaw, Mich.) contributed seven points during the run.

Page responded with a trey but another 8-2 USA spurt cut the margin to 56-43 with 8:26 left in the contest.

“I know we didn’t shoot very good the first half,” said Arrow. “The second half we did. We opened it up more and started driving ourselves, but I was proud of our guys. They came out there the second half. We just didn’t lay down.”

Johnson and Watson scored the next five points to kick the lead back up to 18, but South Alabama responded again, this time getting trifectas from sophomore Dallas Jones (New Market, Ala.) and Lundy, and a bucket from sophomore Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) to pull within 61-51 with 1:49 to go.

However, Southern Miss came up with a key offensive rebound on its next trip down the court and got two free throws from Watson. The Golden Eagles forced a miss on the Jaguars’ next possession and two more points at the charity stripe from Watson put the game out of reach.

“We’ll take (the win),” said Eustachy. “It was just a weird game. When have you seen a team make 11-of-15 3s? I thought it gave us a false cushion at halftime and we just didn’t come out and execute in the second half, but we did when we had to – our lead could’ve been in jeopardy. I give our guys a lot of credit.”

Watson finished with a game-high 19 points, shooting 5-for-6 from behind the 3-point line.

“We knew that he could shoot, but he hasn’t put up that kind of shooting night, I’ll put it like that,” Arrow commented. “It gets to a point where whoever is scoring, if a guy never scored a three in his life, and he hits three or four in a row, I would say it’s time to get out there on him. We just didn’t do that.”

Bolden added 18 points and four blocks, and Johnson dished out eight assists.

Lundy totaled 12 of his career-high 16 points in the second half. Rubit tallied 13 points and six rebounds and freshman Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) tied his personal best with nine rebounds.

South Alabama closes out its four-game homestand Sunday at 3:05 p.m. against Alcorn State.

NOTES: Junior Xavier Roberson (Houston, Texas) missed the game with a broken foot… He will be out the next four to six weeks recovering from his injury… Junior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) blocked five shots… He has 21 in his last four games… The Jags won the rebounding battle 36-25, but lost for the first time this season when doing so (4-1)… USM came into the game 10th in the nation in rebounding margin (+9.6)… South Alabama never led in the contest… After making 12 of their first 16 3-point attempts, the Golden Eagles finished just 2-for-9… Southern Miss has held South Alabama to an average of 55.3 points during its three-game win streak… USA had 16 turnovers, which USM converted into 24 points.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—