Roundup : Southern Mississippi Opens Defense by Beating Clemson, 74-69

Derrek Hamilton scored 18 points and Randolph Keys provided a second-half spark Friday night as Southern Mississippi opened defense of its National Invitation Tournament championship by defeating Clemson, 74-69, in a first-round game at Hattiesburg, Miss.

In the previous 50 NITs, only St. John’s in 1943-44 has won consecutive titles.

Southern Mississippi (19-10) trailed, 66-64, with 2:52 to play but scored 10 straight points, including reserve Jurado Hinton’s go-ahead basket with 2:01 to play. After a basket by Clemson’s Elden Campbell’s broke a 64-64 tie, Southern’s Randy Pettus tied it with a jumper from the key, and Hinton made a bank shot inside following a Clemson turnover. The 10-0 run included two free throws and a basket by Hamilton.

John White and Keys added 13 points apiece for Southern Mississippi, and Campbell had 16 for Clemson (14-15). Other games:

Colorado State 63, New Orleans 54--David Turcotte hit six three-point goals while scoring 24 points to lead the Rams (19-12) over the Privateers (21-11) at Fort Collins, Colo.

Pat Durham added 19 points for the Rams, and Ledell Eackles led the Privateers with 22.

Virginia Commonwealth 81, Marshall 80--Derrick McGhee sank one of two free throws, and Lionel Bacon added a layup in the final 20 seconds as the Rams (22-11) outlasted the Thundering Herd (24-8) at Huntington, W. Va.

Marshall’s Skip Henderson, all-time Southern Conference top scorer, had 30 points.

Middle Tennessee 85, Tennessee 80--Chris Rainey scored 20 points and Ty Baynham made four free throws in the final 24 seconds to lead the Blue Raiders (22-10) over the Vols (16-13) at Murfreesboro, Tenn.

It was Tennessee’s first meeting with Middle Tennessee and its first loss to an Ohio Valley Conference team.

Arkansas State 70, Northeast Louisiana 59--John Tate and Bo Brown each scored 18 points for the Indians (20-13), who overcame a 32-30 halftime deficit against Northeast (21-9) at Jonesboro, Ark.

Cleveland State 89, Illinois State 83--Ken McFadden scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half and overtime as the Vikings (22-7) turned back the Redbirds (18-13) for their 15th straight home victory.