March 4, 2008

Hattiesburg, MS (UWIRE) -- All it took was four minutes for the Memphis Tigers to seal the Conference-USA regular season championship.

In a back-in-forth game that had all the clippings to be one of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season in front of the 8,129 fans at Reed Green Coliseum, but Tigers' freshman guard Derrick Rose put up 13 points in the final minutes to lift the No. 2 Tigers to a 76-67 win.

"He has a will to win like no other and I think he and Chris (Douglas-Roberts) just said, 'We're not going to lose this game,"' Memphis coach John Calipari said.

After being held to one point in the first half, Rose hit three 3-pointers, converted a three-point play and made six-of-seven free-throws down the stretch to clinch the come-from-behind win.

"I didn't want to lose," Rose said. "So I just did everything not to lose."

Sophomore guard Jeremy Wise did everything he could to counter Rose's efforts, making tough shots look easy while leading all scorers in the game with 26 points.

"He was coming off a tough game (against Houston)," Eustachy said. "He was really determined to play well."

The Tigers (28-1 overall, 14-1 Conference USA) struggled against Southern Miss (15-13 overall, 7-7 Conference USA) throughout the game from the beginning. The Golden Eagles had the lead most of the first half, but a quick run by the Tigers gave them the 34-31 advantage.

The Golden Eagles came out of the locker room at the half with a 12-4 run giving Southern Miss their biggest lead of the game, 43-37, after freshman guard R.L. Horton converted on a 4-point play after being fouled by the Tigers' Willie Kemp.

Southern Miss would not trail again until the 7:45 mark when Chris Douglas-Roberts hit two free throws to give the Tigers a 55-54 lead.

The Golden Eagles would never catch up.

Golden Eagle coach Larry Eustachy gave credit to Rose's gameplay as well.

"We just got beat by a great player," Eustachy said. "I've gone against a lot of them and I coached Jamaal Tinsley. I think he's certainly a top-5 pick. He just took over when the game was on the line."

Southern Miss showed they could hang with the No. 2 Tigers coming off an embarrassing 83-47 loss on Jan. 19 in Memphis, Tenn. Eustachy's team shot 54.2 percent from the field, the second highest against Memphis this season.

"That was maybe the highest field goal percentage against us all season," said Memphis head coach John Calipari. "We're third in the country in field goal percentage defense.

"They had a great plan and stuck with it. We just made plays in the final three minutes that were unbelievable. We had great execution and great finishes from Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts."

But the 'great plan' fell short during the final stretch.

"We just got away from our game," said Golden Eagle junior guard Craig Craft, who finished with 14 points. "We broke down and didn't make the plays we needed to make at the end."

Golden Eagle coach Larry Eustachy thought his team was going to be the team who would give the Tigers' their first conference loss in 37 games.

"We expected to win the game," Eustachy said. "We don't have soft guys. We all expected to win and it didn't work how we had hoped.

"We have to play our game. If we get away from it, we're in trouble. We got away from it."

(C) 2008 The Student Printz via UWIRE