As the saying goes, an ugly win is better than no win, but regardless, Southern Miss still has some demons that need to be worked out, with the Golden Eagles holding on to an 83-74 win against Northwestern State.
Yes, the Golden Eagles fell to a sharp Northwestern State team last year that won 22 games.
But that was last year. The Demons entered this year's game 1-7, having not won a game since their season-opening victory against Dallas Christian, a Division II team.
"I've said it a million times that it's hard to win Division I games, and if this is called an ugly win, count me in on that ugly every time," Southern Miss coach Jay Ladner said. "We are not going to be able to step out to the floor and beat anybody, but can we play a lot better? Absolutely."
In the end, the Golden Eagles have overcome a 2-4 start and have now won three straight games to get back over .500 on the season following Saturday's win at Reed Green Coliseum.
"I think we are still finding ourselves," Ladner said. "It's just going to take this team a little longer to get where we need to get.
"I was glad to maybe not have our best effort and still survive."
It wasn't until five minutes into the second half that the Golden Eagles found a needed spark. Northwestern State (1-8) had taken their first lead of the game after going up 43-41 from a 15-0 run. Then, on Southern Miss's following possession, frustration boiled as a hard foul led to a scuffle on the floor, and the refs handed out technical fouls to both benches.
"It had actually helped us," Ladner said. "I had just mentioned to our guys at the timeout that I didn't like our energy level. It was like we were going to give in to it. I thought that sparked us.
"But we want them to play like that all the time."
Prior to the extracurriculars in the second half, Southern Miss held (5-4) an 11-point lead at the half at 36-25. In the last 15 minutes of the game, the Golden Eagles outscored Northwestern State 42-31.
One of the critical factors in the victory was bench play from Victor Iwuakor and Cobie Montgomery, who combined for 34 points, with 19 coming in the second half.
"If you asked me, we were a little nonchalant," said Montgomery, who scored 17 points. "At that point, we knew we had to step it up a notch."
With just under seven minutes in the second half, with USM holding a 65-60 lead, the Golden Eagles put together an 8-0 run to give them the sizable lead needed to seal the win.
In four of the last five games, Southern Miss' defense has surrendered 39 or more points in the second half. But hiding the issues on defense is the fact that the offense has scored 80 or more points for three straight games.
"Ball movement," said Montgomery on what has been different with the offense. "In the past games, we were not really sharing it as much. A lot of shots were within two people. Now you can see that it's four or five of us getting double digits or putting points on the board. Now we have bench players coming off and contributing as well."
Also scoring in double-digits was Victor Hart, who posted a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Donovan Ivory scored 13 points, and Austin Crowley put up 10 points.
Southern Miss will return to action on Wednesday at 7 p.m. as the Golden Eagles travel to play McNeese State.
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