USA Men’s Basketball Take On ULM Tonight
The University of South Alabama men’s basketball team travels to Louisiana-Monroe to take on the Warhawks tonight. This is the Jaguars first game of 2013 and the first road game under the direction of interim head coach Jeff Price.
The Jags come into this game after dropping their first Sun Belt Conference game of the season 63-54 to Arkansas State. The Warhawks are coming off of a last second victory over Florida Atlantic 65-64.
Despite the shooting woes of the last game, the Jags have proven that they are capable of scoring and they have shown that they can play defense. But can their defensive play be strong on a regular basis?
Lousiana-Monroe had a dismal 2011-2012 season. They are at a point in the season where either they improve on the season or they continue in the same direction as last. The win over FAU ended their three game losing streak. The Warhawks were outshot 54.8% to 43% however the Warhawks forced 20 turnovers and had 21 more shots that the Owls to stay alive in the game.
Augustine Rubit looks to continue adding to his career totals. Recently he broke the 1,000th point threshold to become the 14th Jaguar to do so. Then against ASU, he moved into 13th place on the school’s career scoring list. He is 12 points behind Henry Williams for 12th place on that same list. Rubit has already passed Williams on the career rebounding list to move into 4th place.
ULM ranks next to dead last, 344th out of 345, in free throw percentage by shooting 54.6%, 338th in scoring offense with an average of 56 points per game and 326th in turnovers with 17.1 per game average. Warhawks player Trent Mackey is the bright spot on the team. He averages 12.6 points per game, ranks 18th in the nation in 3-pt percentage (45.8%) and 19th in 3-pointers per game (3.0). Mackey had 11 points last season by converting three 3-pointers against the Jags.
South Alabama leads the overall series against ULM, but has lost two of the last three meetings with the last victory being an 88-86 win in Monroe last season. Freddie Goldstein tied his own school record of nine 3-pointers in a game as the Jags as a team hit 14 3-pointers.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30pm in Monroe, Louisiana with coverage being broadcast by 105.5FM WNSP with Lee Shirvanian calling the play by play.