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Feb. 19 Men's Basketball Update
UTEP Moves Back to Top Slot in C-USA Standings

	Randy Culpepper

Feb. 19, 2011

UTEP moved back into the top of the conference standings, while extending its home court win streak to 15 games, with a 76-64 win against Houston Saturday night. Senior Randy Culpepper tossed in 33 points to lead the Miners.

Southern Miss senior Gary Flowers scored a career-high 32 points in a 72-55 victory over East Carolina. The Golden Eagles improved to 20-6 on the season and 8-4 in conference play, in a tie for second place with UAB. The Blazers held on for a 63-58 win over UCF and are now 19-7 overall this season.

Rice picked up its first win in its series with Memphis, knocking off the Tigers, 67-52, at Tudor Fieldhouse. Sophomore Tamir Jackson scored a game-high 20 points, while classmate Arsalan Kazemi registered his 16th double-double of the season.

Tulsa moved into a tie for fourth place in the C-USA standings with an important road win at SMU. Freshman Jordan Clarkson scored 17 points and was part of 38 points from the TU bench in the 74-66 victory.

Marshall won its third-straight game, but host Tulane took the Thundering Herd to overtime before MU earned the 79-75 victory.

Complete C-USA Standings and Results

Updated Statistics

SATURDAY'S RESULTS
Tulsa 74, SMU 66
Southern Miss 72, East Carolina 55
UAB 63, UCF 58
Marshall 79, Tulane 75 (ot)
Rice 67, Memphis 52
UTEP 76, Houston 64

Conference Games in Bold.

C-USA MEN'S BASKETBALL SHOOTING STARS
UTEP senior G Randy Culpepper scored 33 points in 76-64 win over Houston to move Miners back into first place in C-USA standings. Culpepper was 12-of-12 from the free-throw line, tying for the best performance in the conference this season. Claude Britten (Baton Rouge, La.) chipped in 14 points. C-USA career assists leader Julyan Stone(Goleta, Calif.) added seven to his career total (673) and grabbed nine rebounds.

Freshman F Alandise Harris (Little Rock, Ark.) led the Cougars with 18 points (one point shy of his career high) and six rebounds. Seniors F Maurice McNeil (New York, N.Y.) and Zamal Nixon (Brooklyn, N.Y.) adding 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Southern Miss senior F Gary Flowers (Dallas, Texas) recorded his sixth double-double of the year, scoring a career-high 32 points with 11 rebounds to lead the Golden Eagles past East Carolina, 72-55. Flowers was 13-of-20 from the field, including scoring 21 points in the first half and 16 of the team's first 22 points. Flowers is also just one point shy of scoring 1,000 for his Golden Eagle career. Southern Miss now won six of its last seven games and improve to 20-6 overall. With the victory, head coach Larry Eustachy joins Lee Floyd and M.K. Turk and the only Golden Eagles head coaches with three-plus 20 win seasons. Junior G Maurice Bolden (Jackson, Miss.) was the only other Golden Eagle in double-figures, scoring 11 points and pulling down six rebounds. Freshman G D.J. Newbill (Philadelphia, Pa.) had eight points and nine boards. The first half saw three ties and 12 lead changes.

East Carolina senior G Brock Young (Raleigh, N.C.) led the Pirates with 18 points off the bench. Classmate Jontae Sherrod (Tarboro, N.C.) added 12 points for ECU.

UAB senior G Aaron Johnson (Chicago, Ill.) scored 19 points and sophomore Ovie Soko (London, England) had a double-double to lead UAB to a 63-58 win over UCF. Soko finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds - six offensive - as the Blazers improved to 19-7 with seven victories over a Top 100 RPI team. Senior G Jamarr Sanders (Montgomery, Ala.) scored 12 points and freshman G Preston Purifoy (Conway, Ark.) finished with 11. With the victory, head coach Mike Davis earned his 104th win at UAB, moving him past former coach Murry Bartow in terms of victories. Davis, who is now 104-55 (.654) during five seasons at the helm of the Blazers' men's basketball program. UAB has now won four of its last five contests and improved to 12-2 in home contests this season.

Junior A.J. Rompza (Chicago, Ill.) finished with 15 points, and sophomore F Keith Clanton (Orlando, Fla.) grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for UCF. The game served as the second outing in a three-game road swing for the Knights, who will play a make-up game at UTEP on Monday, Feb. 21.

Rice held Memphis to a season-low scoring night en route to a 67-52 victory over the Tigers Saturday in Tudor Fieldhouse. Sophomore G Tamir Jackson (Paterson, N.J.) scored 20 points, his second-straight 20 point game, while classmate Arsalan Kazemi (Esfahan, Iran) posted his 16th double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Senior F Suleiman Braimoh (Manhattan, N.Y.) provided energy off the bench with a career-high four steals and three blocks to go with eight points and four rebounds. Rice players blocked seven shots in the game and six were tracked down by the Owls for defensive rebounds. Freshman David Chadwick (Charlotte, N.C.) had the first two blocks of his career on consecutive possessions late in the first half. The victory was the Owls' first against Memphis. The Tigers had won the first seven meetings in the series and were 5-0 against the Owls in Conference USA play.

Freshman Antonio Barton (Baltimore, Md.) came off the bench to lead Memphis with 14 points. Junior Wesley Witherspoon (Atlanta, Ga.) scored points in his 50th consecutive games played as he finished with eight points in 23 minutes off the bench Saturday.

Freshman G Jordan Clarkson (San Antonio, Texas) scored 17 points as the Tulsa bench totaled 38 points in a 74-66 win at SMU. Freshman C Kodi Maduka (Arlington, Texas), back home in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor, with 4-of-5 free throws. He also added a pair of blocks. Senior G Justin Hurtt (Raytown, Mo.) tallied 14 points and sophomore F/G Bryson Pope (Jenks, Okla.) added 11 points. Junior D.J. Magley (Bradenton, Fla.) made all four shots from the floor, totaling nine points. Junior G Robert Nyakundi (Arlington, Texas), who made 5 of 7 shots from 3-point range, finished with a game-high 22 points for the Mustangs. Senior Papa Dia (St. Louis, Senegal) scored 18 points and Mike Walker added 10 as SMU ended its three-game home winning streak. Marshall freshman DeAndre Kane (Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored a ame-high 20 points, including the winning basket, and grabbed eight rebounds to give the Thundering Herd a 79-75 overtime victory over Tulane. Kane hit a three-pointer with 42 seconds left in overtime and connected on a pair of late free throws to lift Marshall to its third-straight win. Sophomore C Nigel Spikes (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) notched his second double-double of the year, scoring 12 points to go along 13 rebounds, tying his career best. Senior Tirrell Baines (Laurens, S.C.) chipped in 14 points.

The Green Wave was led by sophomore Kendall Timmons (Fort Worth, Texas), who recorded 15 points. Senior F David Booker (Moss Point, Miss.) finished with 14, while Senior G Kris Richard (Beaumont, Texas) had 12.

C-USA UPCOMING GAMES
Monday, February 21
UCF at UTEP - Noon
Tuesday, February 22
Loyola (N.O.) at Southern Miss - 7:00p
Houston at Memphis (CBS C) - 8:00p
Wednesday, February 23
UTEP at East Carolina - 6:00p
Tulsa at Marshall (CBS C) - 6:00p
Rice at SMU (TW Texas) - 7:00p

All times Central.

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