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.

Associated Press

Houston Christian Huskies (9-11, 6-3 Southland) at SE Louisiana Lions (12-8, 6-3 Southland)

Hammond, Louisiana; Monday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: SE Louisiana takes on Houston Christian after Sam Hines Jr. scored 22 points in SE Louisiana’s 86-63 victory against the Incarnate Word Cardinals.

The Lions are 4-1 in home games. SE Louisiana ranks sixth in the Southland with 32.3 points per game in the paint led by Jakevion Buckley averaging 6.0.

The Huskies are 6-3 in conference play. Houston Christian is 4-5 in games decided by 10 points or more.

SE Louisiana averages 72.5 points per game, 1.5 more points than the 71.0 Houston Christian gives up. Houston Christian averages 7.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.2 more makes per game than SE Louisiana gives up.

The Lions and Huskies square off Monday for the first time in Southland play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Hines is averaging 16.4 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Lions. Kam Burton is averaging 1.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Julian Mackey is shooting 36.1% from beyond the arc with 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Huskies, while averaging 14.8 points. Bryson Dawkins is averaging 13.1 points over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Lions: 8-2, averaging 75.6 points, 32.3 rebounds, 12.2 assists, 7.2 steals and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.6 points per game.

Huskies: 6-4, averaging 67.7 points, 30.3 rebounds, 11.1 assists, 9.1 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.9 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.