Golden Eagles beat down Herd

If football season got fans down, Southern Miss basketball head coach Donnie Tyndall and the men’s basketball team have the cure. The Golden Eagles set the Conference-USA record for margin of victory with a 102-46 win over conference foe the Marshall Thundering Herd on Wednesday.

“The score was not indicative of these two teams,” said Southern Miss head coach Donnie Tyndall. “Tonight just happened to be our night. We made some shots early which allowed us to get into our press and turn them over, and it just kind of avalanched after that. We just started the game the right way and it’s a tribute to our guys and the way they have practiced.” 

The win pushed their overall record to 16-4 with an unblemished 5-0 record in conference and extended their already school record 23 game home winning streak.

Marshall hit the opening bucket of the game to take a 3-0 lead, but a 21-point run for Southern Miss let the Herd know they were in for a long night. Southern Miss stretched their lead to 33 points in the blink of an eye and went into half-up by a score of 51-14.

Stingy defense and 20 points from guard Jerrold Brooks led the Eagles to the 56-point victory. Neil Watson chipped in nine assists, and Rashard McGill led the way with seven rebounds. An interesting statistic is that Southern Miss’s lowest scoring half was 49 points in the second; Marshall scored 46 points for the entire game.

Southern Miss will now hit road for a three-game road trip in which they will face conference foes Tulsa, UAB and UCF. The next home game will be on Saturday, Feb. 2 against the Memphis Tigers.