PENSACOLA, Fla. — One down, six to go.

Deantoni Gordon hit a go-ahead jumper with 54 seconds left, and Alfred Worrell Jr. scored a season-high 22 points in 21 minutes off the bench to lead Southern Miss to a 66-63 victory over Coastal Carolina in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball tournament on Tuesday.

Worrell was 8-for-9 from the free throw line, and went 4-for-4 in the final 31 seconds to help the Golden Eagles (11-21) stay a step ahead after Gordon’s shot put them ahead 62-61. Worrell also went 4-for-9 from 3-point range.

Coastal Carolina (10-22) missed three shots from the field and two free throws in the final minute. The last of those were a 3-pointer by Jordan Battle and a follow-up tip-in by Colin Granger at the buzzer.

The Chanticleers’ last field goal was a layup by Granger with 4:48 left that gave them a 60-54 lead. Southern Miss then finished the game on a 12-3 run

Gordon finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, and Denijay Harris had 12 points and seven rebounds for USM. John Wade III did not score a point, but grabbed 10 rebounds.

Granger led Coastal Carolina with 10 points, and Battle scored 13.

Southern Miss, the No. 12 seed in the tournament, advanced to the second round and will face No. 9 seed Georgia Southern Wednesday at 5 p.m. The winner of that game faces No. 8 seed Georgia State on Thursday.

The Sun Belt is using a unique gauntlet-style tournament format, in which the teams earn byes for each place in the regular-season standings. The top two teams, South Alabama and James Madison, received byes into the semifinals. Southern Miss will need to win seven games in seven days to win the tournament and earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.