T.J. Price leads Hilltoppers to 73-62 rout over Southern Miss

WKU bounced back from a tough loss to Louisiana Tech and returned to their winning ways last night after the Hilltoppers produced an expected outcome, finishing out the Eagles by a total of 11 points in a 73-62 win in Hattiesburg.

The Hilltoppers maintained control for most of the entire game. The Eagles put up a fight, but were unable to withstand the offensive ability of the Hilltoppers. Chip Armelin spearheaded the Eagle offense, as he totaled 22 points along with a pair of rebounds and assists. He was followed by teammate Carey Norville who had 16 of his own. USM shot 42% from the floor and 68% from the charity stripe, going 15-22 from that mark. While, 15 free throws seems like a lot, the amount of FT’s they allowed could have been a turning point for the Eagles.

One of the key points to this game was the amount of fouls Southern Miss had (24) that sent the Hilltoppers to the line for 32 attempts, and the Tops were able to cash in on 24 of those attempts. The Tops were also able to win the rebounding battle 34-28, with 13 of their boards coming on the offensive end.

T.J. Price lead the way for the scoring column this evening as he totaled 30 points on the board (Price was everywhere on the stats sheet tonight as he also had five assists, four steals, and three rebounds), he was followed by Trency Jackson with 14 and George Fant adding 12 of his own. For the second straight game, Fant didn’t reach double-double,  but came close, totaling nine rebounds. WKU also shot 43% from the floor and 39% from beyond the arc.

Entering into this game, it was pretty much expected that the Hilltoppers would head back home with a win, and that became the case. Southern Miss drops their 11th game out of their last 12 outings, leaving themselves with a 1-8 conference record. This is all while WKU picks up their 10th win in their own last 11 outings, and move to 8-1 in C-USA play, tied with LA Tech. The Hilltoppers next game will be back in Bowling Green as WKU hosts old Sun Belt rival North Texas.