PEARL — Memories flooded the air around Southern Miss on Thursday afternoon.

Flashbacks to last season’s 14-inning marathon against Houston. To Wednesday’s seventh-inning meltdown against Memphis. Finally, to their winning ways.

The Golden Eagles twice blew late-inning leads before going ahead for good on an RBI infield single from Austin Roussel in the 10th inning, and beat a feisty Houston squad 8-7 in the Conference USA Tournament.

The victory snapped USM’s five-game losing streak at Trustmark Park and eased some of the sting of a lopsided loss to Memphis in the tournament opener. It also kept the Golden Eagles’ slim championship hopes alive, at least for a little while.

Memphis beat Rice 3-2 later Thursday night to clinch a spot in Sunday’s championship game. Because of the tournament’s pod-based schedule, Southern Miss and Rice will still play Saturday at 7 p.m., but the game will be just for pride.

“At this point, it’s all about getting a ‘W,’” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “If we had lost the game right there, I still would have been proud of what we did. There were so many times we gave the momentum back and we could’ve just laid down, but we didn’t.”

The Golden Eagles had a 5-1 lead going into the seventh inning Thursday, but couldn’t hold it. Houston rallied for four runs in the bottom of the inning, tying it on an RBI double by Chase Jensen.

It was an eerily similar scenario to the day before, when USM had a one-run lead on Memphis heading into the seventh inning. Memphis scored nine times and went on to win 14-3.

“We didn’t want that to happen again, so we just had to put a stop to it,” said USM closer Bradley Roney, who got the last two outs of the seventh. “We didn’t want another Memphis game, so it was great to get out of that inning for sure.”

Southern Miss regained the lead in the eighth. Isaac Rodriguez led off with a single and eventually scored on a single by Dillon Day. The Golden Eagles added an insurance run in the ninth, but again couldn’t hold it.

Houston loaded the bases on an infield single, a punch shot to left field that fell in for a hit, and a popped-up bunt that Roney dove for and missed. Landon Appling then scored on a wild pitch, and Michael Pyeatt came in on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 7.

Appling’s hit was part of a 5-for-6 performance. He had five singles, drove in a run and scored three times. The five hits tied a C-USA Tournament record.

Roney atoned up for his poor ninth inning by drawing a leadoff walk in the 10th. He went to third on a well-executed hit-and-run single by Kameron Brunty, and scored on Roussel’s hit. Roussel’s single was a chopper up the middle that shortstop Jake Runte stopped but was unable to handle behind second base.

Houston got the leadoff man on in the bottom of the 10th, but Chase Horn came on to relieve Roney and got the last two outs for his first save of the season. It brought a relatively quick end to the second straight extra-inning C-USA Tournament game between the teams. Last season, they played a four-hour, 14-inning marathon — the longest game in the tournament’s history — that ended just before 2 a.m.