Southern Miss tops Toledo 66-59 in NIT

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Michael Craig scored 16 points, Neil Watson added 12 and Southern Mississippi rallied to beat Toledo 66-59 on Wednesday night in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.

It was a strange night for Southern Miss (28-6), which grabbed a big lead in the first half, lost it early in the second and then rallied to win by a fairly comfortable margin. The Golden Eagles will now travel to Missouri for a 4 p.m. tipoff Sunday at Mizzou Arena.

The Golden Eagles took a 34-19 lead into halftime by shooting 14 of 28 from the field, but Toledo responded with a 24-6 run to open the second half and had a 43-40 lead with 11 minutes remaining.

The game remained tight until Aaron Brown's corner 3-pointer with 4:22 left gave Southern Miss a 57-51 advantage.

Julius Brown led the Rockets (27-7) with 19 points.