Before they play in the Conference USA Tournament, Southern Miss and Rice will have a playoff series to determine the league’s best team.

Houston scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning Sunday and Mo Wiley pitched a complete game to lead the Cougars to a 6-1 victory over Southern Miss. Rice, meanwhile, beat Memphis 7-6 to win that series and pull within one game of the Golden Eagles for first place.

Southern Miss (37-13, 15-6 C-USA) and Rice (35-17, 14-7) open a three-game series Thursday night in Hattiesburg, with the winner taking the regular-season conference title and the top seed in next week’s league Tournament.

Houston (24-27, 11-10) did its part to help out its crosstown rival this weekend by taking two of three from Southern Miss. In Sunday’s finale, the Cougars rocked USM starter Jonathan Thompson early, getting five runs on five hits in the first inning. Joel Ansley drove in two runs with a single, and Ty Stuckey added another RBI single.

The big inning provided Wiley (3-4) with all the run support he needed. The junior right-hander scattered eight hits and four walks, and only struck out two batters, but went the distance. He threw 136 pitches. The only run he gave up came on a solo home run by Adam Doleac in the sixth inning.

“Southern Miss is a very, very good team. We played very well against them in the last two games,” Houston coach Todd Whiting said. “Friday night was the silver lining and maybe we needed to lose another tough game because we really responded well.”

Ansley and Ryan Still finished with three hits apiece for Houston. Tyler Koelling and Ashley Graeter had two hits apiece for Southern Miss.