Conference USA Tournament Roundup

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 5, 1998 / 12:00 AM EST / CBS Sportsline

As the third annual Conference USA Tournament got under way, Marquette took the first step toward defending its championship. In other games, Southern Mississippi, Louisville and Saint Louis also prevailed.

A roundup of Wednesday's action:

Marquette 52, DePaul 50

CINCINNATI -- Jarrod Lovette had 13 points and 12 rebounds Wednesday as Marquette blew a 15-point lead before rallying for a 52-50 victory over DePaul in the first round of the Conference USA tournament.

Marquette (18-9, 9-8) will play North Carolina Charlotte in the second round Thursday as it tries for a second consecutive tournament title. The Golden Eagles took it last year by winning four games in four days.

DePaul (7-23, 3-14) wasted a chance to pull it out at the end and wound up with its ninth straight loss to Marquette. Innis Glover, the Blue Demons' best free-throw shooter at 82.9 percent, missed the first of two with 2.2 seconds left, then purposely missed the second.

Southern Mississippi 73, Houston 57

CINCINNATI -- Kelly McCarty scored 17 points Wednesday and led a balanced attack that swept Southern Mississippi to a 73-57 victory over Houston in the first round of the Conference USA tournament.

Southern Miss (21-9, 10-7) pulled away near the end of the first half and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way, setting up a second-round game Thursday against No. 3 seed Memphis.

The Golden Eagles are trying to advance to a nonconference tournament for the first time since 1995, when they went to the NIT and lost in the first round. They've gone 12-15 each of the last two seasons.

Louisville 75, South Florida 64

CINCINNATI -- Nate Johnson and Alex Sanders led a first-half spurt that set up Louisville for a 75-64 victory over South Florida in the first round of the Conference USA tournament Wednesday night.

Louisville (12-19, 6-11) gets a second-round game Thursday night against No. 14 Cincinnati, which swept their two-game series this season. The Bearcats had a first-round bye.

Johnson scored 17 points and Sanders had 14 in the first half, when Louisville made 12 of its first 17 shots and led by as many as 20 points. South Florida (17-13, 7-10) never led and never figured out how to stop the Cardinals' fluid offense.

Saint Louis 71, Tulane 53

CINCINNATI -- Larry Hughes scored 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers in an opening spurt as Saint Louis beat Tulane 71-53 Wednesday night in the firs round of the Conference USA tournament.

Saint Louis (21-9, 12-5) will play No. 4 seed Alabama-Birmingham on Thursday after improving to 6-0 in first-round conference tournament games under coach Charlie Spoonhour. Alabama-Birmingham had a first-round bye.

Tulane (7-22, 2-15) ended the season with 12 losses in its last 13 games and kept intact its streak of never winning a first-round game in the conference tournament.