Men’s Basketball Drops Close Contest to Southern Miss, 64-63

Saturday, January 20

Hattiesburg, Miss.

2:30 p.m.

Troy University

11-8,5-2Sun Belt

Southern Miss

11-8,5-2Sun Belt

Troy

Southern Miss.

Men’s Basketball Drops Close Contest to Southern Miss, 64-63

1/20/2024 6:01:00 PM | Basketball (M)

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The Troy men's basketball team dropped an intense road battle on Saturday afternoon, as it fell to Southern Miss 64-63 at the Reed Green Coliseum.

With 2.9 seconds left in the game, Southern Miss's Victor Iwuakor scored the go-ahead layup to give the Golden Eagles the lead. The Trojans were unable to come up with the game-winning shot on the other end.

Troy (11-8, 5-2 SBC) was outscored 26-7 over the final 13:21 of the game after going up 18 points – its largest lead of the game. Southern Miss (11-8, 5-2 SBC) was led all night by Donovan Ivory who had a game-high 20 points.

Troy's offense had impressive bursts throughout the first 20 minutes of play. The Trojans got off to a fast start and took an early 10-4 lead before Southern Miss answered with a 6-0 run to even it up at 10.

The teams traded buckets until the Trojans went on a 12-6 run to grab a 27-18 lead after Marcus Rigsby Jr. buried a corner three-pointer.

Southern Miss responded once again, and Troy went into the halftime break with a 34-33 lead.

The Trojans opened the final 20 minutes on a 22-5 run, which included 11 points from Christyon Eugene in the first four minutes of the half on 4-4 shooting and 3-3 from 3-point range.

Eugene finished with a team-high 18 points.

The Trojans shot the ball well in the second half – 47.4 percent – but only took 19 shots. Southern Miss shot 44.4 percent from the field in the final frame but took 27 shots.

The Positives
The Trojans won the turnover battle on Saturday, as they committed 12 turnovers compared to the Golden Eagles' 14. Troy scored 18 points off turnovers and limited Southern Miss to just eight.

The Trojans shot the ball well from 3-point range, going 10-21 (47.6 percent). Eugene was reasonable for four of those buckets and six other players had one.

Defensively, Troy continued to create havoc, this time picking up 12 steals. Entering the game Troy was leading the conference with 10.1 steals per game, which was 11th nationally.

Thoughts from Coach
Head coach Scott Cross gave his thoughts following the game:

"I thought our guys played hard. We did a good job offensively and shooting the basketball. We got a little bit out of rhythm from what we were trying to do, but we had the big lead in the second half and we let it slip away. It's disappointing. We knew it wasn't going to be easy coming in here, but I am proud of the guys battling and giving us an opportunity to win this game."

Up Next
Troy returns to Trojan Arena on Wednesday night as they welcome Texas State for a mid-week contest. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+, the Troy Sports Radio Network. Live stats will be available at Troystats.com.

Game 19 Notes
• Christyon Eugene has scored in double-figures in 16 of 19 games this season after scoring 18 points on Saturday afternoon.
• The Troy defense has double-digit steals in five of the last six games.
• Troy's 47.6 percent shooting clip from 3-point range was its second-best of the season.
• The Trojans shot 50 percent from three at home against SIUE.
• Troy's 63 points scored is the second-fewest of the season (53 at Ole Miss).
• The Trojans were outrebounded 33-32. It's only the sixth time that has happened this season, and Troy is 3-3 in those games.
• Scott Cross moves to 71-72 as the Troy head coach.
• With the loss, Troy split the regular season series with Southern Miss. The Trojans move 2-16 all-time vs the Golden Eagles and 0-11 in Hattiesburg, Miss.