Even when Sam Houston State found open spots in the pressure of Southern Mississippi's zone defense, the Bearkats struggled to put the ball in the basket and dropped the first of three games in the Progressive Legends Classic subregional at Johnson Coliseum by a score of 61-49.
Sam Houston had its worst shooting performance of the season, making just six shots in the first half against Southern Mississippi, then five in the second period to go 11-of-41 (26.8 percent) for the game. The Bearkats have yet to find a consistent scorer amongst this new core of players, which showed on the court and in the box score as well. With Southern Miss playing its 2-2-1 half-court zone defense and a full-court press from start to finish, the Bearkats often seemed unsure how to attack it.
The result was a lot of missed perimeter shots and very little happening on the interior. In fact, Southern Miss outscored Sam Houston 28-4 in the paint. Sam Houston was also outrebounded, 32-26. Starting big men Michael Holyfield and James Thomas both played 16 minutes and grabbed just one rebound apiece. Bearkat coach Jason Hooten knows his team won't get very far if it doesn't get more than that inside.
"We're really getting pounded inside right now and on the glass," Hooten said after the game. "When your point guard is your leading rebounder with six, that's not good. So we've got to get more production out of Mike, J.T., (Terrance) Motley. We've got to get more production out of those guys as time goes on."
Aside from being disrupted by the Southern Miss defense, the Golden Eagles shot 50 percent on the night, led by 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting from Dwayne Davis. Southern Miss post Jonathan Mills put in 12 points and 10 rebounds while only missing one of his seven shots. Jeremy McKay was the only double-digit scorer for Bearkats with 10 points.
Sam Houston fell into an early double-digit deficit that began with a 9-0 run by Southern Miss in the first half. The Bearkats were down by as many as 15 after Davis scored a layup in transition that followed a missed 3-point attempt by Sam Houston.
That was around the time the Bearkats were stuck at 13 points for nearly five minutes. Fortunately for the Kats, Southern Miss only came up with five points of its own in during that offensive lull.
Sam Houston was able to rally back and cut the Golden Eagles' lead to six by intermission.
"We kind of got off to a rough start, but man they're good. They've got a really good team," Hooten said. "They beat Georgia and they beat Western Kentucky to start the year. You've got to give them credit."
In the second half, the Bearkats hung around and trailed by as few as six points with seven minutes left to play. The Golden Eagles closed the game out on a 10-4 run in the final seven minutes.
Southern Miss finished second in Conference USA last season and received an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Kansas State in the second round. Most of the players from that team played Monday night and their wealth of experience showed against the Bearkats. The Golden Eagles' pressure helped unravel the Kats toward the end.
Hooten was pleased with the turnover count, wanting to limit giveaways to less than 15, which the Kats did with 13. But it's when they cough the ball up that's been most problematic, and particularly against Southern Miss.
"We're making mistakes right now at the wrong time," Hooten said. "We met that goal (of less than 15 turnovers), but what the problem was two or three in there that were really costly."
The Kats are back in action tonight against Liberty at 7 p.m.
The Flames (0-4) are still looking for their first win of the season. Last night, Liberty dropped an 18-point decision to UC-Irvine, 64-46.
