Charlotte-Southern Miss basketball battle decided in overtime

Southern Miss built a nine-point lead late in the second half, weathered a furious comeback by Charlotte in the final minutes and gathered itself in overtime for a 74-68 Conference USA victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,840 on Saturday.

USM improved to 7-16 overall and 3-7 in C-USA play; the 49ers lost their second consecutive game and fell to 12-9 and 6-4.

“We had to win this one twice,” USM coach Jay Ladner said. “I just told our guys to go out and win it again. We’d outplayed them the whole game, so let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

USM got off to a hot start Saturday behind the shooting of junior guard LaDavius Draine, who hit his first two attempts from 3-point range and finished with a game-high 21 points.

“I carried my shooting momentum from the last game,” said Draine, who hit 5 of 11 shots from 3-point range in the second half against Old Dominion on Thursday.

“I had a good second half and it just carried over for me. (Friday) in practice we were shooting and hitting a lot of shots, and it carried over into the game today.”

USM built an early 13-5 lead before the 49ers started getting into their offense. Malik Martin hit a short jump shot in the lane to pull Charlotte even at 22-22 with 4:22 to play in the half, and the two teams went into the halftime locker room tied 29-29.

“It was a tough one for us,” Charlotte coach Ron Sanchez said. “Winning on the road in this league is really hard. I thought their coach did a good job with his group. They seemed well-prepared, they executed their offense well, and they made the plays.”

Indeed, the Golden Eagles played a solid game at both ends of the floor and were especially good in limiting the 49ers’ second-shot opportunities.

Charlotte only had nine second-chance points as Southern Miss dominated the defensive boards (34) and out-rebounded the 49ers 42-30 overall.

“Today was a good example of rebounding the basketball,” Ladner said. “Normally, probably 90 percent of the time, the team that wins the rebounding battle wins the game, and that was the difference today.”

Redshirt senior Leonard Harper-Baker was the toughest glass-cleaner for Southern Miss, getting 16 rebounds, to go with 10 assists and 8 points.

It was sophomore guard Gabe Watson, though, who stepped up most for the Golden Eagles. Watson, a natural shooting guard, has had to play point guard since starter Jay Malone was ruled ineligible. On Saturday he delivered 16 points, including 6 of 6 from the foul line.

“Defensively, we wanted to pack the lane,” Watson said. “They were a good 3-point shooting team, but not everybody could shoot the threes as well, then we switched to some zone to keep them guessing.”

Charlotte opened the second half on a 5-0 run, and it seemed like the Golden Eagles might start pressing.

However, Draine hit a couple of field goals, then sophomore Tyler Stevenson hit a soft four-footer, drew a foul and converted the free throw to put Southern Miss ahead 43-41 with 12:51 to go, and the Golden Eagles never trailed again.

“I never thought we lost our composure,” Ladner said. “We’ve had games where that’s happened to us. Things start to go against us a little bit, and we’ve had a tendency to give in, and today we didn’t do that.”

That is, except for the last two minutes of regulation. With USM leading 60-51 with 2:01 to play, the 49ers went to a full-court press that clearly rattled the Golden Eagles, forcing four turnovers in a 15-4 run to close regulation.

“As far as playing close games, coach told us he hadn’t prepared us as well as he wanted to,” Watson said. “It’s the first time we’ve been in that situation and it’s something we’ve got to work on a little better, because we should have won in regulation.

“We were pretty gassed, but we changed our mindset and finished the game.”

Drew Edwards swished a 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds remaining on a defensive mix-up to tie the game 66-66 and send it to overtime.

“We executed really well down the stretch and forced overtime,” Sanchez said. “We gave ourselves new life, but they executed better in the overtime.”

Neither team got much going in the overtime, but the Golden Eagles forced a pair of missed 3-pointers and got a turnover to keep the 49ers at bay, and it was Harper-Baker who put Southern Miss ahead with a jump shot in the lane.

Charlotte tied it back up one final time with a pair of free throws, but freshman Artur Konontsuk hit one of two foul shots. USM followed with a stop, leading to Stevenson converting a field goal for a 71-68 lead.

“I thought we played lock-down defense in overtime,” Ladner said. “If we’d have lost that game, I’d have been kicking myself, because I should have done a better job getting us prepared for the press. That’s on me.”

Konuntsuk had 15 points for Southern Miss after going scoreless Thursday against ODU, and Stevenson had his second consecutive double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Edwards had 16 points and nine rebounds to lead Charlotte.

“We’ll celebrate tonight, then get back to work Monday,” Draine said.

This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 6:42 PM.