Southern Miss. 73, Houston 54

Jan 12, 2013, 05:56 pm

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Jerrold Brooks scored 16 points and Southern Mississippi used a strong first half to beat Houston 73-54 on Saturday.

Daveon Boardingham finished with 12 points and Norville Carey had 11 for the Golden Eagles (13-4, 2-0 Conference USA), who have won five straight games. Jonathan Mills had 10 rebounds and six points.

With a 17-15 lead, Southern Miss closed the first half with a 19-0 run that was capped by Cedric Jenkins' jumper before heading into halftime with a 36-15 advantage. The Golden Eagles held Houston scoreless for the final 7 minutes of the half.

Jenkins knocked down a jumper with 3:30 left in the second half to give Southern Miss a 71-44 lead -- its largest of the game.

Joseph Young scored 14 points shooting 1 of 8 from beyond the arc for the Cougars (12-3, 1-1), who had their seven-game winning streak snapped. TaShawn Thomas had 10 points.