Jaguar Men Open Three Game Homestand Against ULM Tonight
The South Alabama men’s basketball team begin a three-game home stand Thursday night when they host Louisiana-Monroe for a 7:05pm tipoff. The Jags come into this game after splitting a pair of road games beginning with a thrilling double-overtime win over Louisiana-Lafayette 91-89 then a 66-56 loss at North Texas, the Jags first road loss in Conference play.
“Louisiana-Monroe is a good team, like any conference team we’re expecting a close game,” interim head coach Jeff Price said. “This is a team that went and won at North Texas and played Middle Tennessee to nine points last week. You learn that conference games are different than non-conference games. They’re going to come ready to play and we’ll have to show up to have a chance to win the game.”
While the Jags are 4-1 on the road in Conference play, they are 1-2 at home in the Conference. The two losses have come against Middle Tennessee State and Arkansas State. Those two teams have a combined conference record of 10-5.
“I think we’ve been extremely focused on the road,” Price said. “Our focus has been really good and we have to find a way to get that same focus at home and hopefully get off to a good start, we haven’t gotten off to great starts at home, and hopefully have some folks here to watch us.”
The Jags faced the Warhawks about two weeks ago on January 3 where they scored a 77-72 win. Junior Augustine Rubit scored a career high 32 points in the win. This will be the Jags first rematch against a Conference foe this season.
“(Playing again so soon) could benefit both of us or be a disadvantage,” Price observed. “We look at a lot of tape and I’m sure they’re doing the same thing. We look at what we did well over there and what we didn’t do well and try to make some adjustments. It’s certainly different playing someone so close together and I’m sure we’ll both have our own strategies put together on how we need to win the game.”
ULM’s Amos Olatayo used the game against South Alabama to jump-start his season. Prior to the contest against the Jags he had scored only six points in the previous two games. But he broke out with 18 points off the bench to start a streak of four consecutive games in double-digits scoring. He is averaging 19 points per game over that span with a high of 24 points last week against MTSU.
The Jags and the Warhawks tipoff at the Mitchell Center at 7:05pm.