Top 25: No. 20 Memphis 91, Southern Miss 79

Top 25 basketball » Memphis won the Conference USA tournament title for the seventh time in eight years.

By JEFF LATZKE

| The Associated Press

First Published Mar 16 2013 01:17 pm • Last Updated Mar 16 2013 11:58 pm

Tulsa, Okla. • Chris Crawford scored 23 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer in double overtime, and No. 20 Memphis beat Southern Miss 91-79 on Saturday to win its seventh Conference USA tournament title in the past eight years.

Crawford, the league’s sixth man of the year, connected on a 3-pointer from the left wing to put the top-seeded Tigers (30-4) up 78-76 with 2 minutes, 44 seconds remaining. He also had a jumper and a pair of free throws in a 9-0 run by Memphis soon after that finally put away the game.

Daveon Boardingham scored 19 points and Jonathan Mills had 15 points and 17 rebounds for second-seeded Southern Miss (25-9), which nearly clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Golden Eagles instead must hope to get their second straight at-large bid Sunday.

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