Southern Miss' comeback bid falls short and Golden Eagles drop to 1-6 on the road

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Southern Miss, which trailed by 22 points with 8 minutes to play against UAB, cut the deficit to 8 before falling 86-75 at UAB Thursday. 

The Golden Eagles drop to 9-9 overall and 2-3 in Conference USA play, while the Blazers improve to 12-5 and 3-1. 

"I love the effort we put on the floor," head coach Doc Sadler said. "Our guys competed. We had 21 assists out of 29 made baskets. UAB is very explosive, well-coached and they know their roles. We held them to eight 3-pointers and we made 15. When UAB needed baskets and stops, they got them."

Freshman LaDavius Draine exploded for a career-high 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting in 23 minutes, hitting a trio of 3-pointers as well. He had scored just 30 points over 79 minutes all season prior.

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Southern Miss (9-9, 2-3 C-USA) shot 58 percent in the second half compared to 39 percent in the first. 

"In the first half, I thought we played pretty well," Sadler said. "We made a few defensive mistakes and they made us pay for every one of them. Something we haven't done a lot of this year is turn the ball over, and we did that a lot there (seven turnovers). We missed a few open shots that would have kept us within 10, and then they'd make theirs."

Southern Miss returns to the court at 5 p.m. Saturday at Middle Tennessee.