Louisiana
MCBB: Southern Miss finds first road win of season, beating Louisiana 67-59 – SuperTalk Mississippi
With a minute remaining and the Southern Miss men’s basketball team clinging to a one-point lead, a Christian Watson layup and a handful of clutch free throws down the stretch lifted the Golden Eagles to a 67-59 win over Louisiana on Saturday night.
Scoring summary
Southern Miss scored early with the first two baskets to take a 5-0 lead. Louisiana then answered and rattled off an 11-0 run to take its first lead. The conference rivals traded the next few baskets before Southern Miss guard DeAntoni Gordon drained a jumper to start a 7-0 run and allow his team to climb back.
A dunk by Watson tied the game at 20-20 before an Alfred Worrell, Jr. layup gave the Golden Eagles their first lead since the short run after tipoff. The first half’s final minutes were back and forth before Southern Miss narrowly pulled away with a 35-31 lead at halftime.
The Ragin’ Cajuns jumped out in the second half to a 43-36 lead before Christian Reid knocked down a free throw to knot the game back up at 45-45. Louisiana regained and maintained a small lead until the final few minutes of play.
Star big man Denijay Harris gave Southern Miss a 60-57 lead before Louisiana forward Mostapha El Moutaouakkil nailed a layup to cut the lead to one point with just over a minute remaining.
That’s when the clutch layup from Watson happened and Louisiana began to foul. Free throws from Neftali Alvarez, Harris, and Worrell sealed the game and gave Southern Miss its first road win of the season.
What the coach said
Southern Miss head coach Jay Ladner, who reached his 150th career win with the victory over Louisiana, noted after the game that his team was successful in changing its mindset after an overtime loss to Texas State a week ago.
“I thought we let some factors beyond our control effect the way we played during the first half, and we had a little come to Jesus meeting at halftime about controlling ourselves. But to our guys’ credit, they responded with a mature attitude,” Ladner said. “You certainly can’t overreact to every call, and I think we let a few factors from last week against Texas State get into our heads.”
Numbers never lie
- It took 16 road games for Southern Miss to get its first victory away from Reed Green Coliseum this year. The win was also the team’s first in Lafayette since 2009.
- Led by Gordon (13 points), the Golden Eagles were able to spread out offensive production with Cobie Montgomery (12 points), Watson (10 points), and Worrell (10 points) all scoring in double digits.
- Harris was unable to continue his double-double trend, grabbing 10 rebounds but scoring nine points.
- El Moutaouakkil paced Louisiana with 23 points and eight rebounds. Kentrell Garrett added 13 points.
- Southern Miss outrebounded the Ragin’ Cajuns 42-31 but did turn the ball over 15 times.
Next up
Southern Miss will continue its road trip and head to Troy to play the Trojans on Monday, Jan. 27. The game was originally set for last week but rescheduled due to Winter Storm Enzo. Tipoff is at 5 p.m. CT.
A state lawmaker whose district includes Iberville and nine other parishes will lead the way on the drawing of a new congressional map when the committee convenes Friday.
Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, will chair the hearings to draw a new congressional district map. He currently serves as chairman of the U.S. Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee.
On Wednesday, Kleinpeter said he has not worked on any maps. He is letting the committee members and the members of the Senate work on this with staff.
The move will come nine days after the U.S. Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote ruled one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black U.S. House districts unconstitutional.
“We can’t base it on race anymore, so the minority party is the Democrats,” he said. “The Democrats have migrated away from the New Orléans area, so we’re looking at Democrats versus Republicans, so the minority party — the Democrats — which means it’s more favored toward Baton Rouge.”
The move would work in favor of incumbent 6th District Congressman Cleo Fields, who was a candidate for the race which Gov. Jeff Lndry suspended in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
The ruling stemmed from Louisiana vs. Callais – a consolidation of Robinson vs. Callais – that centered on racial gerrymandering and redistricting in the state of Louisiana following the 2020 United States census. The lead plaintiff, Phillip “Bert” Callais, is a resident of Brusly.
The Supreme Court vote came despite the African American population comprising nearly one-third of the state’s population.
According to the 2020 Census, the Black or African American population in Louisiana was approximately 1,464,023,representing 31.4%of the state’s total population. Louisiana has one of the highest percentages of Black residents in the United States, ranking second behind Mississippi.
The Baton Rouge district would likely be the area to undergo the remap, he said.
It amounts to an intricate balancing act.
“What far-right Republicans don’t understand is that with Congress maps, you have to be within 776, 280 votes – within 50 votes of the other districts,” Kleinpeter said. “It’s not like our legislative maps where you can be off by thousands … when you start changing a precinct, it can run down a rabbit hole chasing this precinct over here and over there.
“We can easily draw a really strong nine Republican and one strong Democrat, so if you start watering districts down you could wind up with a 4-2 map.”
Republicans currently have a two-vote super majority vote.
“But some Republican districts are strong and others are weak,” Kleinpeter said. “If you take 58 percent Democrats and put them in Republican districts, you could end up losing Republicans.
“Drawing congress maps is very difficult – you have the leader of the party, and you have the Speaker of the House you have to protect,” he said. “You don’t want to jeopardize their maps at hole.”
One other issue is looming for the state, Kleinpeter said.
“What people don’t understand is that we will have to do this all over again in five years, after the next census comes out,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll people by that time.”
The 2030 Census will play a key role in the process, but it still requires participation.
“I had plenty of next-door neighbors who didn’t want to fill out their census” he said. “I’m going to push to fill out their census. We miss out on federal money and potentially risk losing a seat. “
Neuty, the iconic Bucktown nutria visits the state capitol, with Myra Lacoste, Denny Lacoste, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, Dennis Lacoste Sr., and Louisiana state Senator J. Cameron Henry Jr. Neuty was an orphan, rescued by the Lacostes. In March 2023, LDWF agents attempted to confiscate the illegal pet.
VIDALIA, La. — Louisiana State Police arrested 18-year-old Gregory Steele early Sunday morning on two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of underage operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, one count vehicular negligent injuring and one count careless operation, according to Concordia Parish Jail records.
Steele, 18, a white male, was arrested in connection with an accident that occurred at approximately 1:54 a.m. on Sunday morning on Minorca Road in Vidalia. Two passengers in the vehicle were killed. Steele and another passenger were able to escape the vehicle.
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