Watson sinks Pirates with perfection

From electronic and staff reports
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Junior guard Neil Watson had East Carolina in his sights Saturday night, nailing 7-of-7 field goal attempts — all of the three-point variety — to lead Southern Mississippi to an 88-69 rout of the Pirates in Hattiesburg.

Watson maintained his shooting perfection at the free throw line, where he was 5-of-5 as the Golden Eagles completed of sweep of the teams' series. USM snatched an 86-82 overtime victory over the Pirates in Greenville on Feb. 16.

Southern Miss led 36-31 after a nip-and-tuck first half that involved seven ties and seven lead changes, but the Golden Eagles steadily pulled away after intermission to blow the game open.

Senor guard Dwayne Davis had 17 points, senior forward Jonathan Mills added 15 and junior forward Davio Boardingham contributed 12 for USM.

Senior forward Maurice Kemp paced ECU with 23 points on 7-of-10 from the field and 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. The performance was good enough for Kemp to remain C-USA's leading scorer at 17.963 points per game, a hair ahead of Houston's Joseph Young at 17.962.

Junior guard Akeem Richmond came off the bench to score 15 and senior point guard Miguel Paul recorded 13 points and 8 assists for the Pirates.

Southern Miss ruled the battle of the boards on both ends of the court, outrebounding ECU 42-23. The Golden Eagles dominated the jostling for offensive caroms 14-5 and won the combat for defensive rebounds 28-18.

East Carolina (16-11, 7-7 C-USA) remains in a fracas with Tulsa (15-13, 7-7) and UAB (15-14, 7-7) for a spot in the top four in the C-USA standings and the corresponding first round bye in the Mar. 13-16 league tournament in Tulsa. The teams are tied for fifth place, but fourth-place Central Florida is ineligible to compete in the event because of sanctions.

The Pirates hold the tie-breaker over both the Golden Hurricane and the Blazers. ECU defeated Tulsa on the road on Feb. 20 in the only matchup between the schools. The Pirates swept the two-game series with UAB.

In the wake of its loss to the Golden Eagles, East Carolina will try to nail down the bye when it closes out the regular season this week with a pair of winnable home games. Tulane (6-8, 18-11) visits for a 7 p.m. tip-off on Wednesday and Marshall (5-9, 12-17) comes calling for a 5 p.m. contest on Saturday.

Southern Miss (22-7, 11-3) has guaranteed itself a first-round pass with a firm grip on second place behind Memphis. The 19th-ranked Tigers (14-0, 25-4) clinched the regular season title and kept their league record unblemished with a 76-67 Saturday win over UCF.

Texas-El Paso (9-5, 16-12) is closing in on locking up the third spot. The Miners escaped Greenville with a 68-67 win on a long three-pointer at the buzzer on Jan. 26.

PAGE UPDATED 03/03/13 01:40 AM.

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