February 16, 2000
HATTIESBURG, MISS. - Southern Mississippi shot 64 percent in the first half while building a 25-point lead and buried Saint Louis 71-48 tonight in a Conference USA men's basketball victory at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg, Miss. Junior swingman David Wall poured in 23 points as the Eagles improved to 15-8 overall and 5-6 in C-USA.
"They took it to us tonight and defended us better than anyone has all season," Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "This certainly doesn't cripple our NCAA Tournament hopes, but it does put more pressure on the remaining games."
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 13-2 advantage after the Billikens missed a couple of close shots and a pair of free throws. USM increased that to 27-4 with 11:26 remaining in the half. With four minutes remaining before the break, the Eagles were shooting a sizzling 70 percent from the field.
Saint Louis made one run in the second half and closed within 14 with 11:56 to play on a Troy Robertson three, but the Bills couldn't get any closer. Trailing by 15 shortly thereafter, Justin Love had a break-away lay-in rubbed out by an offensive foul call and eliminated any thoughts of a stirring comeback.
Mario Miles and Vanderal Jones joined Wall in double figures with 10 points each. The Eagles ended up shooting 44.2 percent from the field after the Billikens limited USM to 25.9 percent from the floor in the second half.
Love, who had been making a move on the C-USA scoring leadership, finished with15 points on only 4-of-11 from the field and was limited to only three three-point attempts. Junior forward Matt Baniak grabbed eight boards and matched his career high with four blocked shots.
Poor free throw shooting didn't help SLU, as the Bills shot only 54.2 percent (13-24) from the line to complement their 37.2 percent marksmanship from the floor. In a match-up of the two worst teams in C-USA in the assist-to-turnover ratio, Saint Louis turned the ball over 20 times while handing out only five assists. The Eagles countered with 17 assists and only 12 turnovers.
The Billikens (14-9 overall, 6-5 in C-USA) take on Tulane in New Orleans on Sat., Feb. 19, in the second game of their three-game road swing.
