ATLANTA — Southern Miss is only in its first year as a member of the Sun Belt Conference, but it’s been playing like it already owns the place.

Felipe Haase scored 26 points, DeAndre Pinckney had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Southern Miss beat Georgia State 79-71 on Saturday for its seventh win in a row.

Southern Miss (21-4, 10-2 Sun Belt) matched the highest win total for a Sun Belt team since the 2018-19 season, and remained tied with Louisiana-Lafayette for first place in the league.

Southern Miss and Louisiana play Thursday in Hattiesburg.

Southern Miss trailed by four points at halftime, but went on a 14-0 run midway through the second half to take the lead for good. The run featured five points from Marcelo Perez and seven from Mo Arnold. The Golden Eagles forced six turnovers.

Georgia State eventually got back within two points, 69-67, on a jumper by Dwon Odom with 2:25 remaining. Arnold finished a fast break with a layup to silence the crowd with 1:20 to go, and the Golden Eagles made eight free throws over the final 49 seconds to ice their seventh road win of the season.

Haase made six of USM’s eight free throws down the stretch.

Arnold finished with 11 points, Perez scored 10 and Neftali Feliz eight for Southern Miss.

Brenden Tucker finished with 17 points for Georgia State (10-14, 3-9), which had all five starters in double figures and no points from its bench. Jamaine Mann had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Odom totaled 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds.