Hot-shooting FAU topples Southern Miss on senior day

The FAU basketball team put together its best shooting performance of the season Saturday, spoiling Senior Day for Southern Miss.

FAU (9-16, 5-9 in Conference USA) hit 61.2 percent of its attempts from the field, including 68.2 percent on 3-pointers. The Owls made their last eight 3-pointers of the game.

“We really struggled defensively and that's the first time we've done that,” USM head coach Doc Sadler said. “I can't think of another time we did. You can say they made shots and they did. We missed a lot of assignments on how to guard them. They got open looks and we couldn't stop them. You give them credit, but you're supposed to win at home when you score 80 points.”

Southern Miss finished the regular season with an 8-6 record at home, including a 5-4 mark against conference competition.

USM (8-19, 5-10) turned the ball over only two times and out-rebounded FAU 31-29, but those advantages were wiped out by the Owls' hot shooting.

FAU entered the game shooting only 27 percent on 3-pointers.

“They capitalized every time we made a defensive mistake,” USM sophomore guard Cortez Edwards said. “Kudos to them.”

Edwards did his best to send the seniors out on a winning note at Reed Green Coliseum. He finished with team highs of 26 points and 11 rebounds.

Senior guard Quinton Campbell pitched in 17 points. Michael Ramey and Eddie Davis both added 12 points for the Golden Eagles

Gerdarius Troutman was the biggest outside threat for FAU on Saturday, hitting 7-of-9 3-pointers on his way to a game high of 25 points.

Justin Massey also hit 4-of-6 3-pointers for 14 points for the Owls.

The loss puts a dent in USM's chances of making the Conference USA Tournament. The Eagles need to finish in the top 12 in the conference and Saturday's loss put them in 12th place with three road games remaining to close out the regular season.

USM goes to Rice on Thursday, North Texas on Feb. 25 and Louisiana Tech on March 4.

“Nothing's changed,” Campbell said. “We're trying to get there. That's what we're aiming for. Anything can happen in the tournament. We have to focus on those three games so we can get there.”

USM is eligible for the C-USA Tournament for the first time since 2014. The Eagles didn't participate the last two seasons because of a self-imposed postseason ban meant to head off severe sanctions from the NCAA due to a probe of Donnie Tyndall's time as head coach there from 2012-14.

This story was originally published February 18, 2017 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Hot-shooting FAU topples Southern Miss on senior day."