Box Score      TOUGALOO, Miss. — Walter Howard scored 24 points and Jermaine Hodges 21 Thursday to lead Tougaloo to a 71-45 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball victory over Xavier University of Louisiana.
     The Bulldogs (17-8, 10-3) won their fourth in a row and maintained sole possession of first place in the conference. The Gold Rush (16-9, 8-5) dropped into a third-place tie with Loyola, which lost 99-91 at LSU-Shreveport. Tougaloo leads by a game over LSUS.
     Shaun Dumas scored 15 points for Xavier, and Kelechi Okoroha added nine points and nine rebounds.
     Tougaloo led 38-23 at halftime and swept its two-game regular-season series with Xavier for the second consecutive year.
     Howard and Hodges combined for eight of the Bulldogs' nine 3-pointers. Xavier was 0-of-6 from behind the arc — the first time in five seasons the Rush failed to make a 3-pointer.
     Xavier scored its fewest points in a game this season, and the losing margin is the Rush's largest since the 1995-96 season.