By By Associated Press
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Gary Flowers scored a career-high 32 points and narrowly missed another career milestone as he led Southern Mississippi past East Carolina 72-55 on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles (20-6, 9-4 Conference USA) rode their senior forward’s 21-point performance in the first half to a 36-30 lead and started the second half with a 20-6 run to seal the team’s third 20-win season under seventh-year coach Larry Eustachy.
After losing the first-half rebounding battle 18-17, the Golden Eagles outrebounded the Pirates (13-13, 5-7) 24-11 in the second period. The lead changed hands 12 times in the first half, but the Eagles never trailed in the second and led by as many as 20 points.
Flowers fell just one point shy of the 1,000 mark for his career, but grabbed 11 rebounds to record his sixth double-double of the season.
With 3:41 left in the game and Southern Miss holding a 63-48 lead, East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo was called for a technical foul and Flowers went to the free-throw line. He needed to make just one of two to reach the career milestone but missed both.
Maurice Bolden added 11 points for Southern Miss, which improved to 12-1 at home.
The Golden Eagles stayed within a game of Conference USA leader Memphis.
East Carolina senior guards Brock Young and Jontae Sherrod combined for 30 points. Young scored 14 of his 18 in the first half, and Sherrod scored all 12 of his in the second.
The loss was the third in a row for East Carolina. The Pirates have lost four of the team’s last five and five of their last seven.