In the 20th matchup between the two programs, Southern Miss Golden Eagle Basketball defeated the William Carey Crusaders 82-59 in a cross-town exhibition at Reed Green Coliseum on Tuesday night. It was their seventh-straight victory in the Mayor’s Cup series with the Crusaders, who were 6-0 entering the game.
After the Golden Eagles' tough road loss to Grambling State last Thursday, the team fell to 1-3 on the season. In only their second home game of the season, the Golden Eagles needed to build off of their first home win earlier this month over Tougaloo College and continue to set the tone at Reed Green Coliseum. They did just that.
After trailing 3-2 at the 18:28 mark in the first half, the Golden Eagles snatched the lead from the Crusaders and never looked back. Defensively, Southern Miss was stout in the first half, and often, William Carey had to settle for deep three-pointers or tough shots in the paint. The Crusaders shot an abhorrent 23% from the field and 17% from behind the arc in the first half.
William Carey’s leading scorer on the season, junior guard Troy Dunn, was hounded all night by the Golden Eagle defense. He was held to a season-low 8 points on just 3-12 field goal shooting. The team improved slightly in the second half, shooting 42% from three-point range and turning the ball over just two times.
Meanwhile, Southern Miss shot 54% from the field and connected on 42% of their three pointers in the contest. It was a balanced effort, as 12 players registered in the scoring column and the team tallied 17 assists. Yet, as has been the story for the young season, the team struggled mightily with turnover issues in the first half, giving the Crusaders the ball 11 times. However, they turned the ball over only twice in the second half.
Transfer guard Curt Lewis had his best performance as a Golden Eagle, with a season-high 11 points. The graduate student transferred from East Tennessee State, where he played just 8 games during the 2024-25 season. The Golden Eagles’ leading scorer on the season, junior guard Isaac Taveras, notched 13 points on 5-10 from the field. It was Taveras’ lowest volume game of the year from a shooting perspective.
A key contributor to the Golden Eagles’ win was their dominance of the painted area in the second half. The two teams stood equal with 12 points in the paint each at halftime, but the Golden Eagles won that department 24-6 in the second half. Similarly, after William Carey outrebounded them in the first half, Southern Miss gathered 27 boards after halftime to William Carey’s 16. All of Southern Miss’s second-chance points came in the second half, as well.
Even though it was a game they were projected to win, the Golden Eagles needed this performance to get their young season back on track. Was it a perfect game? No, but even the nation’s best teams don’t always have perfect games. Southern Miss simply needed a more complete and consistent effort than they did in their loss to Grambling State last week. The team looked like it was going through the motions in that contest, and, in last night’s game, they centered back in and gave a balanced effort at home.
The Golden Eagles move to 2-3 on the season and are back in action on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT in a matchup against the North Florida Ospreys (1-2) as part of the first day of the Pensacola Invitational. They will face either UT Martin or Prairie View A&M on Sunday, depending on the outcome of their game with North Florida.
The Golden Eagles’ next home game will not take place until Dec. 8, when they host Grambling State and look to avenge their first matchup.
