Here’s a snapshot of where Southern Miss stands after hitting 8 straight losses vs. UNT
Year No. 2 of Jay Ladner’s tenure as head men’s basketball coach at Southern Miss appears headed for the same outcome as the first season.
The Golden Eagles lost their eighth straight game Saturday afternoon, assuring another losing season in a 68-56 defeat at the hands of North Texas.
Southern Miss dropped to 7-14 overall and 3-11 in Conference USA play. The Mean Green, last season’s conference champions, improved to 12-6 and 8-2 with their third consecutive victory.
USM fell behind by as many as 19 points in each half, and a furious rally in the final minutes proved too little, too late.
“I’m proud of our guys for the way they battled in the second half against the team that’s leading our league,” said Ladner. “But when you dig yourself that much in a hole, it’s tough to overcome.”
The Golden Eagles never led in the game, as the Mean Green reeled off seven straight points in the first five minutes of play to take command.
Southern Miss answers
USM got it back to a six-point game, 21-15, with 9:15 to play in the first half, but North Texas outscored the Golden Eagles 18-7 the rest of the period and led 39-22 at halftime.
While the Golden Eagles struggled to make shots, hitting just 7 of 21 (33.3 percent) from the field in the first half, UNT converted 15 of 28 (53.6 percent), including four 3-point shots.
“A lot of our shots in the first half were outside shots, and we needed to be more aggressive to try to get to the rim and get to the free throw line,” said junior guard Justin Johnson, who made his first start since the season opener count and led Southern Miss with 16 points.
“The most important thing is sharing the ball, getting their touches in the spots where they can make shots.”
A big culprit in the Golden Eagles’ offensive woes has been inconsistent shooting from the perimeter. Southern Miss was just 2 of 9 from 3-point range and did not hit one from distance until the 8:30 mark of the second half.
Of particular concern was the shooting of senior guard LaDavius Draine, who has been the Golden Eagles’ best 3-point shooter. Draine was 0 for 5 from beyond the arc and did not score in 21 minutes of playing time.
“We’ve got find ways to get him going,” said Ladner. “He’s not getting down on himself, he’s not pouting. He got some good looks, but just didn’t get anything to fall.
“I don’t think we turned down too many 3-point opportunities; we just didn’t get the ball in good spots. But there’s no question we need to do a better job of shooting the 3-point shot.”
Jaron Pierre gives USM a boost
The Golden Eagles came out for the second half with some energy, but never got any kind of comeback going until midway through the second half. Freshman Jaron Pierre Jr. came alive for 10 of his 12 points.
Pierre capped a 9-0 run with a pair of foul shots to cut a 19-point deficit to just 10, 57-57, with 6:22 to play. Junior DeAndre Pinckney keyed the rally with the Golden Eagles’ first trey of the game, and he finished with 13 points.
“We shuffled our lineup a bit,” said Ladner. “We’re seeing a lot of first-year guys out there making plays, and I was proud of that.”
North Texas, however, returns a senior-laden team, and it showed down the stretch.
After Pierre cut the margin to 10 for the first time in the second half, Mean Green senior Javion Hamlet converted an offensive rebound into a three-point play, hitting a shot in the lane, drawing a foul and sinking the and-one.
USM cut the margin to nine, 63-54, on Pierre’s runner along the baseline with 3:18 to go, but 6-foot-10 senior Zachary Simmons grabbed a missed shot and kicked a pass out to senior James Reese for a 3-point shot to quell the uprising.
Junior Tyler Stevenson added 12 points and 7 rebounds for Southern Miss. Hamlet led all scorers with 21 points for North Texas, Simmons added 17 points an Reese had 12 points, along with 8 rebounds.
“At the end of the day, win or lose, we’re all brothers,” said Johnson. “You’ve got to stay together. You can’t keep changing your attitude when things aren’t going so good. Our attitude is still positive.”
For a coach who is as used to winning as Ladner, with state championships as a high school coach and a national championship in the junior college ranks on his resume, staying patient with the process of building a program has been tough.
“It’s difficult and somewhat frustrating,” said Ladner. “All I know to do is keep rolling up our sleeves like we’ve been doing and working hard to figure it out.
“It is a process, and I have to keep reminding myself of that. We want to win, and we want to win now, so we’re impatient with that. But you do have to step back and look at what we’re doing and stay the course.”
Southern Miss will be back on the road next weekend for a pair of games at Florida International. Tipoff Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m., while Saturday’s game has a 1 p.m. starting time.
This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 9:24 PM.
