DALLAS — Chris Warren scored 19 points, including eight during a 23-4 second-half run, and the University of Mississippi men”s basketball team defeated SMU 75-57 Wednesday night.
Zach Graham added 13 points to surpass 1,000 for his career, and Terrance Henry had 11 for the Rebels (12-3), who shot 69.6 percent in the second half.
Robert Nyakundi hit six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points for the Mustangs (9-5), who had their five-game winning streak snapped.
Mississippi led 36-35 before Henry hit a jumper with 17:06 remaining to spark the decisive spurt, which included three acrobatic dunks, the last by Graham for a 59-39 lead with 9:22 to go. SMU didn”t get closer than 14 the rest of the way.
The Rebels trailed for most of the first half before scoring the final five points to take a 32-30 intermission lead. Mississippi has won four straight and nine of 10.
Southern Miss
Flowers lesds men”s basketball past Houston
HATTIESBURG — Senior forward Gary Flowers recorded his second straight double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds Wednesday night to lead the Southern Mississippi men”s basketball team to an 85-73 victory against the University of Houston in its Conference USA opener at Reed Green Coliseum.
With the win, Southern Miss improves to 12-2, 1-0 in C-USA. Houston falls to 8-6, 0-1 in conference. It is also the first conference-opening victory since the 2006-07 season.
Flowers was 10 of 15 from the floor, and connected on a career-high four three-pointers. Junior guard had his best night of the year, scoring 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting. It was the second highest scoring output of his career. It is also the first time two Golden Eagles scored 20 points since Jeremy Wise and Courtney Beasley accomplished the feat against UAB in 2009. Senior guard R.L. Horton added 18 points while thing a career-high with six assists.
“It was a great win,” Southern Miss coach Larry Eustachy said. “We gave up way too many easy baskets off the transition. You look at some of these lines — (Maurice) Bolden was 9 of 11, (Gary) Flowers was 10 of 15, (R.L.) Horton was 6 of 10. We shot the ball very well.”
Southern Miss will play at 6 p.m. Saturday at Marshall.
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