Southern Miss (4-3, 0-0 Sun Belt) is taking the 2025 Pensacola Invitational trophy back to Hattiesburg as the Golden Eagles cruised to a 70-60 win over UT Martin (4-2, 0-0 OVC). Tylik Weeks was named tournament MVP, while Djahi Binet and Isaac Taveras were tabbed All-Tournament Team.
Southern Miss led from start to finish at the Pensacola Bay Center Sunday night, as the Skyhawks never caught up after Curt Lewis banged a three-pointer to start the game. The Golden Eagles led by as many as 21 in the first half as Lewis and Israel Hart each scored nine points in the opening 20 minutes.
Taveras put an exclamation on the first half as he posterized a Skyhawk on a breakaway slam 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 as Jay Ladner began to empty his bench.
Weeks finished with a game-high seven rebounds as he averaged 25.5 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game over the weekend. Lewis helped himself to four steals as Southern Miss had five as a team.
Southern Miss’ tournament win is its first since winning the 2022 Cancun Challenge. The Golden Eagles secured wins over Winthrop and Purdue Fort Wayne in that tournament and later went on to claim the Sun Belt regular season championship that season.
The Golden Eagles saw much of their success come in the paint this weekend as they finished with 106 points inside the point over the two games. Southern Miss shot the ball 51.9 percent from the floor and went 6-for-16 from deep tonight.
Up Next
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. Tip-off from Radford is slated for 6 p.m. CT.
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