Southern Miss is this year’s Pensacola Invitational champions as the Golden Eagles cruised to a 70-60 win over UT Martin on Sunday.
The most recent victory followed Saturday’s 92-83 win over North Florida. For their efforts on the floor, Tylik Weeks was named the Pensacola Invitational MVP, while Djahi Binet and Isaac Taveras were added to the all-tournament team.
Scoring summary
Taveras put an exclamation point in the first half as he posterized a Skyhawk on a breakaway dunk that drew the Southern Miss bench to its feet, as well as the Bay Center crowd. Binet added six points in the first half as he made his presence known in the paint with four rebounds.
Binet finished the game with a team-high 14 points, along with Weeks’ 14. The second half was never out of Southern Miss’ control, though the Skyhawks cut it to 10 at the end of the game with a 10-0 run over the final 1:40. Weeks finished with a game-high seven rebounds. Curt Lewis helped himself to four steals as Southern Miss had five as a team.
Coach’s comments
Southern Miss head coach Jay Ladner praised the depth of his team following the two-game stint, though he noted that his team has to continue to elevate if it wants to make waves as the season progresses.
“Depth is one of our strengths with this team,” Ladner said. “We have to continue to improve. We take a very methodical approach to every game.”
Numbers never lie
The Golden Eagles saw much of their success come in the paint this weekend as they finished with 106 points near the basket over the two games. Southern Miss was 51.9% from the floor and made 6 of 16 shots from deep on Sunday.
Next up
The Golden Eagles will enjoy the Thanksgiving break before heading to Radford and Miami (Fla.) for a two-game road swing. The first game will be on Wednesday, Dec. 3, against the Highlanders. Tipoff from Radford is slated for 6 p.m. CT.
