Jags Fall To ASU 74-62
The South Alabama men’s basketball team fought back from a 16-point deficit against Arkansas State but could not overtake the Red Wolves Thursday night and fall on the road 74-62.
The Jags fall to 11-9 on the season and 8-4 overall in Sun Belt play as their season-best three-game winning streak was snapped. ASU improves to 13-8 overall for the season and 7-5 in Sun Belt play. The Jags hold onto second place in the Eastern Division and is currently tied for second place overall in the Sun Belt Conference standings. The Jags now trail Middle Tennessee by three games and lead FIU by two games in the Eastern Division. UALR leads the Western Division by one game over ASU.
Arkansas State’s Rakeem Dickerson scored 18 points, all of them in the second half and 14 of them from the foul line. Trey Finn also scored 18 and three steals for the Red Wolves.
Augustine Rubit led South Alabama with 18 points, while going 12-for-12 from the foul line. He also finished with nine rebounds, two short of a double-double, and two blocks. Javier Carter scored 11 points (10 in the first half) off the bench to tie a season high while added three blocks and two steals.
It was nearly 15 minutes into the game before the Jags got their first offensive rebound of the game.
The Jags trailed the entire second half but worked hard to battle back with runs of 6-0 and 7-0 to close within two points each time. However ASU would respond each time with runs of 7-0 and 8-0 of their own.
“It was an extremely physical game,” interim head coach Jeff Price said after the game. “It was hard-fought and intense on both ends. We put them on the line a lot. We got to the free throw line too but it’s hard to battle 43 free throws. We just couldn’t get a flow to the game because the flow stopped so much with the fouls. We were bending but we weren’t breaking. We kept fighting back but every time we had a chance to get over the hump we just couldn’t do it.”
“We just couldn’t make baskets when we needed to,” Price continued. “We were getting stops and then all of the sudden we’d foul and they’d make free throws. We missed a couple of easy shots we should have made. It’s hard to play on the road in this type of environment against a good basketball team. We just have to keep plugging away.”
Arkansas State went 30-of-43 from the free throw line with Dickerson going 14-of-16 and Finn went 8-of-10. Arkansas State opened up a 16 point advantage around midway through the first half, however a Jagaur run of 16-5 would cut the Red Wolves lead to 35-29 at halftime.
The Jags will face Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday for a 7pm tipoff before returning home for another three-game homestand. The game can be heard on 105.5 WNSP and WNSP.com on Saturday.