DENVER—Chris Udofia knew a teammate was having a tough night. And the Denver sophomore forward made sure he picked up the slack.
“I saw that Brian Stafford wasn’t getting the shots that he had the past two games,” Udofia said. “I felt it was my role to score.”
Udofia scored five of his 21 points in the last three minutes to lead Denver to a 59-52 victory over Southern Mississippi on Thursday night.
Udofia was 7 of 10 from the field for Denver (3-0). Rob Lewis added 15 and Royce O’Neale 11 for the Pioneers.
“That’s what this team has to do to be successful,” Denver coach Joe Scott said. “I don’t want to see 32 and 25 points from one player, like Brian had done.”
“I want balance every game,” Scott added. “What was good about tonight was we got contributions from a lot of different guys.”
The trio filled the offensive void as Brian Stafford, who entered the game as the nation’s sixth leading scorer at 28 points a night, was held to five points on 1 of 8 shooting.
“Things didn’t go my way, and a couple of fouls put me on the bench,” said Stafford, who was limited to 24 minutes by foul trouble. “We had different people step up and we got a good win against a very good team”
Angelo Johnson led Southern Mississippi (1-1) with 12 points. Neil Watson, Maurice Bolden and LaShay Page had 11 points each for the Golden Eagles, who began a five-game road trip.
“I could tell that was a good team when I watched them warm up,” Southern Mississippi coach Larry Eustachy said. “I knew then that we had our hands full.”
Two free throws by Johnson brought the Golden Eagles to within 48-45 with 3:02 remaining. Denver pulled ahead 53-47 when Udofia hit a 3-pointer and a short jumper.
Southern Mississippi managed only a three-point play by Bolden and two free throws by Page over the last 1:04.
Stafford struggled with his shot, shooting 1 for 4 in the first half, but Denver led 30-22 at the break.
Two free throws by Lewis extended Denver’s lead to 34-22 early in the second half, but the Pioneers went scoreless until 13:34 remained when Udofia hit a jump shot. The Golden Eagles got within 36-32 on the second of two 3-pointers by Watson.
Stafford remained cold, missing two shots from short range. Udofia made up the difference with a dunk off the break to make it 44-37. Two free throws by Watson got Southern Mississippi within 45-43 with 4:25 left.
A 3-pointer by Lewis gave Denver a 48-43 lead.
“This was a tough loss,” said Watson. “We made good moves to get open, but we couldn’t finish.”
Southern Mississippi hurt itself with 33 percent shooting. It made only 3 of 12 3-pointers.
Denver finished 17 for 22 from the free-throw line. The Pioneers made only four 3-pointers after making 15 in their first two games.
