Thursday, March 13th, 9:30 p.m. (et)

FACTS & STATS: Site: FedExForum (18,400) -- Memphis, Tennessee. Television: Local. Home Record: Southern Miss 11-3, UCF 12-4. Away Record: Southern Miss 3-9, UCF 3-8. Neutral Record: Southern Miss 4-1, UCF 1-2. Conference Record: Southern Miss 9-7, UCF 9-7. Series Record: UCF leads, 2-1.

GAME NOTES: Quarterfinal-round action of the Conference USA Tournament pits the fourth-seeded UCF Knights against the fifth-seeded Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Southern Miss was challenged a bit by Rice last night, but the club managed to advance with a 59-50 victory in that contest. The Golden Eagles closed out the regular season with back-to-back wins and hope to extend the win streak to four games today. UCF is 16-14 overall, and while the team's 9-7 conference record certainly isn't spectacular, it was good enough to warrant a first-round bye in this tournament. On a down note, the Knights are just 4-10 away from home this season, and they closed out the regular season with back- to-back losses. Southern Miss dropped a 52-41 decision to UCF during the regular season, and the Knights own a 2-1 edge in the series.

The player to watch for Southern Miss is Jeremy Wise, a Second-Team All- Conference USA performer. In the victory over Rice last night, Wise scored 23 points and dished out five assists to lead the way. R.L. Horton tallied 11 points, and Andre Stephens pitched in 10 points. The Golden Eagles only connected on 35.8 percent of their field goal attempts in the clash, but they limited the Owls to 34.1 percent shooting. Also, Southern Miss committed a mere six turnovers and forced 13 giveaways. Without question, the strength of the USM team is rebounding, as it owned the best rebounding margin in the league at +6.8 rpg by the end of the regular season, even better than the mark posted by Memphis which finished undefeated in league play.

UCF leans heavily on Jermaine Taylor at the offensive end of the floor, and he has responded by averaging 20.7 ppg. While Taylor is clearly the go-to guy, he gets some help from two other double-digit scorers. Dave Noel is contributing 13.1 ppg, and Mike O'Donnell adds 11.9 ppg. Noel is shooting 51.9 percent from the floor, but O'Donnell is connecting on only 38.1 percent of his field goal attempts. UCF is generating 73.6 ppg overall while allowing 69.0 ppg to the opposition. Taylor shot 11-of-42 from the field in the final two regular season games combined, and it will be interesting to see if he can bounce back strong in this quarterfinal matchup.

UCF is not on the same level as the top three seeds in this tournament, and while a loss today is certainly possible, give a narrow edge to the Knights. Taylor is due for a breakout game after back-to-back clunkers.

Predicted Outcome

UCF 66, Southern Miss 65