William Carey couldn’t make a shot to save its life on Tuesday night in a 82-59 loss to Southern Miss in the annual mayor’s cup.
Twelve Golden Eagles scored, and the defense smothered one of the NAIA’s highest scoring offenses. Southern Miss (2-3) controlled the second half to pull away with the 23 point victory and the programs seventh straight Mayor’s Cup victory.
For Southern Miss head coach Jay Ladner, the matchup carried personal meaning — and predictable anxiety.
“Well, first of all, I hate playing William Carey, and I say that with respect,” Ladner said. “My dad played for Coach Knight’s dad back in the ’50s. I grew up knowing their family. So I certainly don’t hate them. I just hate playing William Carey because they are pesky. They were undefeated coming in, and we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
William Carey came into the game as one of the best offenses in all of NAIA. However, the Crusaders shot just 26.3% from the floor and 23.1% in the first half.
Ladner echoed the praise for his team’s improvement on the defensive end.
“I’m probably most proud of that — the fact that we held them to 23 percent in the first half and 26 for the game,” he said. “That’s a low for this team, especially against a high-powered group.”
William Carey head coach Steve Knight said the shot-making difficulty was no surprise because of the level of team they were playing
“We talked all week if we want to beat a D1 school, we’ve got to shoot a high percentage, rebound the ball, and take care of the ball,” Knight said. “We did good in two of those three. But the size difference and athleticism we’re not used to caused us to miss a lot of drives at the bucket. We’re just not used to facing that kind of elevation.”
That was probably the difference in the game — their defense. Their closeouts are faster, the length is greater. We knew Jay had a lot of athleticism, and it really shows up defensively.”
Southern Miss forces 11 William Carey turnovers and scored 16 points in the fast break, adding to the speed and athleticism advantage that they had over William Carey.
William Carey went 1 of 12 over a period in the first half, which might be more manageable to come back from if the team you are playing is also shooting poorly. Unfortunately for WCU, Southern Miss was shooting lights out.
Southern Miss hit 10 of its first 14 shots and jumped out to a double-digit lead, while William Carey opened the night just 4-for-22. In fact, Southern Miss shooting almost 70% at end of first half.
Despite the poor shooting, William Carey eventually settled in and cut the lead to seven right before the break. With the clock winding down, Robert Cowherd buried a deep heave at the buzzer to give Southern Miss a 38-28 halftime lead.
That shot would start a 15-2 run that spilled over into the second half for Southern Miss to pull ahead by 18, effectively putting the game away at that point.
Curt Lewis had some real impactful minutes in the game. He finished with 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc.
In all, all twelve Southern Miss players scored and the Golden Eagles shot a 53.6% clip on the night.
Ladner praised his bench, who scored 37 points, as a real encouragement to the depth this team has.
“Our strength is our depth,” Ladner said. “A guy like Dalyn Brandon plays three minutes tonight — he’s a good basketball player. Brewer Carruth came in and played really well. We’ve just got a bunch of good players. It’s a double-edged sword, but I love it when everybody gets an opportunity.”
Isaac Taveras continued to lead Southern Miss in scoring, as he has in practically every game this season. He finished with 13 points on the night with shooting 5-for-10.
Asked about holding Carey to 26 percent shooting, the junior guard pointed to focus and communication.
“We knew what we were facing and were just trying to follow the game plan,” Taveras said. “We started a little slow, but when we came in the locker room, coach talked to us and we went out there and locked in on defense. We still have to get better, but I feel like we played pretty good defense today.”
Izay added 10 points and eight rebounds. Paymon finished with nine. Djahi Binet went 4-for-4 from the floor and Dylan Brumfield dished out five assists against his former team.
Ladner did want to see Brumfield be a little more explosive on the offensive side of the ball, where he only attempted three shots.
“Dylan against us last year, in this same game had 27, so we’ve seen what he can do,” Ladner said. “And that was against Neftali Alvarez and Andre Curbelo, who’s two pretty good guards. So, we want to see Dylan a little more productive on offensive end. But I think thin what he’s trying to do is run the team. I think he’s trying to be more of a facilitator, but he’s a good scorer. We’ve seen him do it, and we are certainly encouraging him to do that.”
Brumfield previous head coach Knight said that Brumfield played exactly how he expected him to play.
“We know what Dylan can do,” Knight said. “I thought he did an excellent job. And just, you know, being a control guy. We counted on him to score a lot but Jay doesn't need that from him. He wants him to control the half court, and be a floor general and I thought he did a good job with that.”
Southern Miss heads to the Pensacola Invitational to face North Florida on Saturday night at the Pensacola Bay Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. While William Carey returns to the road to play Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday night.
