TULSA, Okla. - The Tulane men's basketball season came to a close on Wednesday afternoon as the No. 11 seed Green Wave fell to No. 6 seeded Southern Miss, 57-47, in the first round of the 2010 GMC Sierra Conference USA Championship held at the BOK Center.

Tulane (8-22) was not able to muster much offense against Southern Miss' (19-12) physical defense and never led in the game.

"This was a very typical Tulane-Southern Miss game," Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson said. "Since I've been at Tulane they have been the most physical team in this conference and this game was very typical of the past games. I also thought we came out flat at the very beginning and that set the tone for the first half."

The Golden Eagles jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and never looked back. The Green Wave did chip away to cut the deficit to four, 10-6, with 13:34 left in the opening half after a pair of free throws and a lay-up by David Booker, but would not get any closer.

USM scored on the next possession to go back up by six, but Aaron Holmes' lay-up less than 30 seconds later made the score 12-8. The Golden Eagles then rattled off seven straight points to take a 19-8 lead with 10:45 left in the half. Tulane would not get closer than seven the rest of the half and trailed 25-16 at the break.

The Golden Eagles opened the second half by scoring 10 of the first 16 points to take a 35-21 lead, their largest of the game, less than four minutes into the half.

Tulane did cut the deficit back to single digits after a jumper by Kevin Sims cut the USM lead to 41-33 with 10:28 left. Southern Miss answered with a jumper off the hands of Torye Pelham to retake a 10-point lead.

Terrance Beasley muscled in a lay-up less than two minutes later and was fouled. Beasley's shot cut the Golden Eagles' lead to 43-35, but the freshman was not able to convert the three-point play and USM scored the next three points to retake the double figure lead, one they would not relinquish.

Neither team shot well from the floor in the game. Tulane hit 19 of 32 shots (30.6 percent), while USM hit 19 of 58 (32.8 percent). The difference in the game came on the boards with the Golden Eagles taking a 50-38 rebound advantage, including 19 offensive rebounds that were turned into 19 second chance points.

"We did some good things in the second half, but we just couldn't get the ball enough to get over the hump," Dickerson said. "They had 50 rebounds to our 38 and that is the most important factor in the game." Johnny Mayhane and Kris Richard led Tulane with eight points each, both hitting a pair of 3-pointers. Kendall Timmons added six points and a team-high seven rebounds. Mayhane added five boards, while Sims chipped in six points and five rebounds of his own.

With two assists in the game, Sims, the senior, ended his career with 412 career assists, seven shy of Tulane's all-time record held by Jerald Honeycutt.

"This is a very difficult loss because we have won this first game of the conference tournament the last four years," Dickerson said. "Now to lose the first game is very difficult."

Tulane entered this year's tournament having won its opening game of the C-USA Tournament in each of the past four seasons.

Gary Flowers led Southern Miss with 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Pelham and Angelo Johnson both posted 11 points and six rebounds.

GAME NOTES
- Kevin Sims finished his career at Tulane (school ranking) with 1,339 points (15th), 412 assists (3rd), 164 3-pointers made (3rd), 429 3-pointers attempted (3rd), 401 FT made (3rd) and 3,737 minutes played (6th).
- Asim McQueen played in his 122nd and final game at Tulane, ranking his tied for fourth on the career list.