With Isaac Taveras Back, Southern Miss Aims for Strong Finish to Season

The Golden Eagles get some much-needed firepower back with Isaac Taveras returning from injury, but head coach Jay Ladner knows it will take an overall team effort to reach the team's goals this late in the season.

Southern Miss guard Isaac Taveras returned to action on Saturday after being out with a hand injury since December. / @DJKujho on X

HATTIESBURG – It has been an up-and-down season for the Southern Miss men's basketball team, which currently sits at 13-13 with five regular-season games remaining. However, perhaps Saturday's performance was a sign of good things to come.

The Golden Eagles defeated a talented Kent State team at Reed Green Coliseum over the weekend during the MAC-SBC Challenge, 66-65. Although there were many key individual performances, like Tylik Weeks' double-double with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and one steal, and Djahi Binet's 17 points, seven rebounds, and one block, the play of junior guard Isaac Taveras may have been the most important.

After being out with a hand injury since December, Taveras finally returned to action on Saturday. Despite being on a minutes restriction due to getting his game conditioning where it needs to be, Taveras didn't skip a beat, scoring 16 points (6-11 FG, 4-4 FT) off the bench in just 17 minutes of action.

For a team that has really struggled on the offensive side of the floor at times throughout this season, having a natural scorer like Taveras back in the fold is big for the Golden Eagles as the Sun Belt Conference tournament nears. Weeks, who took over as the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer in Taveras’ absence, won’t have to shoulder as much of the scoring load down the stretch.

Southern Miss head coach Jay Ladner is happy to have Taveras back, but he also knows it's going to take a complete team effort to end this regular season the right way over these final five games.

"First of all, we need to get Isaac back in condition and rhythm. That’s gonna take a few weeks," Ladner tells Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI. "Secondly, (we need to) stay committed to defense and rebounding the ball. We have improved tremendously in that area. A factor in defense is offensive shot selection. Shooting good shots improves defensive transition, which improves defense."

The Golden Eagles begin this final five-game stretch of the season on Thursday night at Reed Green Coliseum, as they'll take on South Alabama, which currently ranks third in the Sun Belt with a 17-7 (7-4) record and second in points given up per game (67.7).

This season hasn’t gone the way Coach Ladner and the rest of the guys had hoped it would, but at the end of the day, most of the team’s goals are still there for the taking.

feed