HATTIESBURG, Miss.- Southern Miss out-scored Savannah State 9-2 down the stretch and held on to defeat the Tigers 64-54 in the championship game of the Hardwood Club Holiday Tournament played at Reed Green Coliseum, before a crowd of 2,580.

USM led by 14 with 14:21 left to play in the contest before Savannah State rallied to make it a 47-44 game with 7:23 remaining.

The Eagles increased their advantage to 55-47 with 2:16 on the clock but SSU got a pair of free throws from Jovonni Shuler and a 3-pointer from Preston Blackmon to slice their deficit to 55-52 with 1:20 left.

Southern Miss ended the contest with a 9-2 spurt to improve to 11-2 on the season.

USM earned the win despite not making a field goal the final 7:12 but did manage to make 14 of 16 free throw attempts during that stretch.

Shuler led Savannah State (2-14) with 19 points while Joshua Montgomery added 17 and Blackmon chipped in 11.

USM scored the first five points of the contest and led 13-8 with 15:07 on the clock.

With the scored knotted at 15, SSU went on a 8-3 mini-run to go ahead by five but the Eagles ended the half with a 12-2 run to take a 30-25 lead at intermission.

Southern Miss out-rebounded the Tigers 38-28.

Gary Flowers led the Eagles with 28 points and 15 rebounds.

Shuler and Montgomery were named to the all tournament team.