The Lamar University men’s basketball team never fully recovered from a big first-half deficit, falling to Southern Mississippi 66-63 in the Cardinals’ home opener Tuesday night at the Montagne Center.
After trailing by as many 16 points early due to some serious offensive struggles, Lamar slowly worked its way back into the game in the second half. Thanks in large part to some timely shooting from junior guard Davion Buster, the Cardinals eventually cut Southern Mississippi’s lead to just three points and had a chance to tie on the final possession.
With 9.2 seconds remaining, Lamar inbounded the ball from its own end. Freshman Kasen Harrison drove down the court, then dropped the ball off to Buster, who came out from the corner for a potential game-tying, 3-point attempt.
Unlike Buster’s dramatic buzzer-beater last time out against UL-Monroe, his shot clanked off the rim as the buzzer sounded, sending Lamar to the home-opening loss. The Cardinals now fall to 1-5 overall.
“It felt good coming off my hand, but that’s the way it goes,” said Buster, who finished with a game-high 19 points. “Sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Lamar fell behind quickly in the first half because of an extended run by Southern Mississippi.
A Buster 3-pointer at 14:12 in the first half made it a slim 10-9 deficit for the Cardinals. However, Lamar wouldn’t score again for more than eight minutes as the Golden Eagles went on a 14-0 run to take control of the game.
The Cardinals shot 22% in the first half and were bullied down low, being outrebounded 24-16 before the break. It resulted in a 33-20 halftime deficit.
“We’ve got to learn to start the game at 7 o’clock and not at 7:45,” Lamar head coach Tic Price said. “Much like the ULM game, we didn’t start playing until the second half.”
Lamar finally found some traction in the second half as the Cardinals began their comeback attempt. Price employed a press defense and often trapped Southern Mississippi players after crossing the half court line.
The strategy resulted in turnovers or quick shots for Southern Mississippi, helping Lamar find some desperately-needed easy offense. Lamar forced 21 total turnovers in the losing effort.
“A lot of those were because we pressed,” Price said. “We needed to do something to get ourselves going.”
Even as the Cardinals chipped away at the lead, crucial possessions often went against them in the form of missed shots. Sophomore Anderson Kopp continued what’s turned into a shooting slump in recent games, going 2-of-14 from the field during Tuesday night’s loss.
Kopp was hardly alone with the offensive inefficiency. The Cardinals shot just 35.8 % in the loss.
Even so, Lamar still had a shot to tie as Buster rose up for the three-point shot as time expired. Price called it a “decent look” and said it was more or less what had been draw up in the previous timeout.
The Golden Eagles (2-3) were paced by 15 points from Artur Konontsuk.
Lamar now looks ahead to a road game at Louisiana Tech (5-2) Saturday afternoon.
mfaye@beaumontenterprise.com
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