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Fresh
Frogs top Golden Eagles
Behind
a career night from Marcus Shropshire, the Frogs blew
Southern Miss out of Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
By
Brent Yarina
Sports Editor
A little bit of rest proved to be the perfect medication
for the Horned Frogs Wednesday night.
Eight days removed from their last game, junior guards
Marcus Shropshire and Corey Santee took full advantage
of their fresh bodies, combining for 48 points to lead
the Frogs (7-10, 3-3 Conference USA) past Southern Mississippi
79-67 at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
“I liked getting the time off because as a group
we needed some time to regroup and just look at what was
ahead of us,” Santee said.
Shropshire agreed the time off was beneficial for the
team because it allowed the Frogs some time to just relax
and get back to playing their brand of basketball.
“Eight days off was nice for us so we could relax
and rest a little bit,” Shropshire said. “(The
break) let us just sit and think about what we needed
to do tonight. Coach stressed a lot about playing hard
and playing with a lot of confidence and that’s what
we did tonight.”
Based on these two Frogs’ performances, the confidence
level appears to be sky high.
Shropshire scored a career-high 29 points, shooting 8-of-19
from the field, and Santee put in another all-around performance
with 19 points, three rebounds and eight assists against
a Golden Eagles team that was bigger than the Frogs at
every position.
Santee’s eight assists were impressive, but it was
his ballhandling — he had zero turnovers — that
prevented USM from making any sort of serious comeback.
The Golden Eagles had only one lead the entire night,
which lasted a total of 46 seconds, at 2-0. That lead
was quickly erased by a Chudi Chinweze jumper and a Nucleus
Smith layup, however.
And with 18:27 remaining in the first half, the Frogs
took their first lead of the game, a lead they would never
relinquish.
Head coach Neil Dougherty also credited the team’s
eight day rest to his players’ performances Wednesday
night.
“(The long break) is unusual,” Dougherty said.
“It’s only bad if you’re playing well.
Well, we weren’t playing well, so we worked with
Santee and tried to get him shooting the ball better.
“He wasn’t playing great basketball. I have
to cut his minutes back so he can stay fresh. I got to
do a better job of that.”
The Frogs may have been in control the entire game, but
they could not keep the bigger and stronger Golden Eagles’
star players from having big nights.
Senior forward Charles Gaines, who entered the game averaging
14.8 points and 9.8 rebounds, collected a double-double,
scoring 20 points and grabbing 14 boards.
Sophomore forward Jasper Johnson presented matchup problems
for TCU all over the court, too. He put in his best statistical
game of the season with 22 points and nine rebounds.
Despite giving up these two big performances to USM, the
Frogs say they just want to savor this victory, which
put them at .500 in C-USA, for a few days.
“It’s real good,” Santee said. “It’s
fun. We have as many wins right now in conference than
we did all last year.”
Dougherty said he wants his players to enjoy this victory
but that they must get back to the practice floor so they
can prepare for a talented Memphis club Saturday afternoon.
“We’re going right back to work,” Dougherty
said. “We have a few miles left to catch up to the
top teams in the conference.” |
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Ty
Halasz/Staff Photographer
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| Juniors
Corey Santee and Aaron Curtis double team a Southern
Miss defender Wednesday night in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
The Frogs won 79-67. |
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