March 8, 2008

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Southern Miss at Marshall Game Book

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Southern Miss held Marshall to just 30 percent shooting in the second half and rode the strong post play of Demar Dotson to a 63-58 win over the Thundering Herd in the Conference USA regular-season finale on Saturday at the Cam Henderson Center.

With the win, the Golden Eagles (17-13, 9-7 C-USA) locked up the fifth seed in next week's C-USA Championship and will face No. 12 Rice. Marshall (16-13, 8-8), coupled with wins on Saturday by UTEP and Tulsa, drops to the eighth seed and will face No. 9 Tulane at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday in the first round.

Dotson posted a double-double of 12 points and a career-best 12 rebounds off the bench to spark the Golden Eagles. The senior grabbed eight offensive rebounds and went 5-for-7 from the floor to lead Southern Miss to a 39-34 rebounding advantage.

USM sophomore guard Jeremy Wise scored 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting, including 2-for-5 from 3-point range with five assists. Sai'Quon Stone and Courtney Beasley both added 11 points, with Stone pulling down nine rebounds.

Marshall junior guard/forward Markel Humphrey scored his 1,000th career point - the 44th player in school history to do so - en route to 11 points and six rebounds. On Senior Night, senior Mark Dorris netted a team-high 16 points with five assists while sophomore Tyler Wilkerson recorded his second straight double-double, his team-best sixth double-double, with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Southern Miss led 30-25 after a choppy first half. The Golden Eagles scored 11 points off of eight Marshall turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

Marshall senior Jean Francois Bro Grebe got the start and immediately made an impact, blocking USM's first shot of the game before dropping in a layup on the other end.

Marshall never led in the second half. Herd senior Pierre-Marie Altidor Cespedes got MU off to a good start in the second frame, recording a three-point play to open the half to cut the Herd's deficit to 30-28.

After trading baskets for the next six-plus minutes and the Eagles leading 39-37, Southern Miss opened an eight-point lead after scoring six straight points - two of which came off of Dotson putbacks. Wise and Craig Craft, who scored six points, continued to sink difficult shots throughout the second half. The duo combined for 15 second-half points.

Marshall cut the lead to one point, 52-51 with 6:49 remaining after a Humphrey three-point play while getting fouled in the lane. The scoring remained stagnant for over two minutes until Beasley bumped the USM lead back up to four points on a slick layup plus a foul on an out of bounds play under the MU basket.

A pair of Dorris free throws shaved MU's deficit to two points, 55-53, with 4:27 remaining. Marshal would get no closer - sinking only one field goal in the game's final 6:49 - as Wise would score four USM points down the stretch to seal the win.

The Herd could not take advantage of two USM misses on the front end of a one-and-one opportunity at the free-throw line in the game's final minute.

The Herd went 15-for-22 (68.2 percent) from the free-throw line while USM went 11-for-17 (64.7 percent).

Dorris' 16 points leaves him just nine points shy of 1,000 for his career.

Marshall will face the Green Wave for the third time this season after sweeping the regular season series, 2-0. The game will serve as Wednesday's third first-round tilt.