USA Men’s Basketball Defeat Mobile In Exhibition Game
Head basketball coach Matt Graves coached his first game on the sidelines as USA’s head coach against Mobile in an exhibition game. | Photo by butler.edu.
The South Alabama Men’s Basketball team defeated the University of Mobile 65-55 in their exhibition game Tuesday night. The Jags held the Rams to 29.1% shooting for the game while Augustine Rubit recorded 18 points and 12 rebounds.
South Alabama’s defense held the Rams to 18.2% from outside the three-point line and forced 20 turnovers.
However the Jaguars first half was wasn’t much better for the Jags as they only scored 23 points while committing 24 turnovers with only six assists. Rubit scored 16 of his 18 points after halftime after an 0-for-4 effort from the floor in the first half. Rubit blocked four shots and went 6-of-7 from the foul line.
Freshman Ken “Juice” Williams added 13 points and two 3-pointers while coming down with six rebounds. Junior Mychal Ammons also came down with six rebounds while adding 12 points.
“I told the guys in the locker room after the game that I was really proud of their effort and if they continue to throw the ball all over the place like that I’m going to lose the rest of my hair,” head coach Matthew Graves said after the game. “It’s a learning experience for all of us and the thing I told them I was most proud about was the way they defended. Normally, when a team throws the ball all over the place, they don’t shoot a high percentage and they’re playing from 10, 12 points down. Right out of the gate I thought we did an excellent job of guarding them and making them take contested shots, so I was really pleased with our defensive effort tonight.”
“Walking up and down the side line it felt really good,” Graves said about his first game as a head coach. “It was a dream of mine to do that and making that dream become a reality. We have a great team and a great staff and it was a lot of fun tonight.”
The exhibition allowed the Jags to get some game-time experience in their new system. “It’s a new system, new time and I think we had four freshmen on the court at one time,” said Graves. “It’s a learning experience and I think what people can take from this is how good were going to be three games from now, five games from now, ten games from now. It’s going to be a growth process for this team.”
In the first half the Jags only hit 24% of their shots with 12 turnovers but they opened the second half with a 12-4 run to give USA the largest lead of the game. The Jags almost doubled their scoring in the second half as they hit 13-of-23 for a 56.5% clip.
The Rams ended the Jaguar’s threat to run away with the game with an 11-3 run to cut the Jaguar lead to 42-39 with 9:20 left in the game. Ammons hit two free throws to start a 6-0 run that ended up being a 13-2 run to put the game away.
USA blocked 10 shots as a team which included four from Rubit and two from Williams. Senior Antoine Allen was held out of the game for a violation of team rules.
South Alabama will open the season against Detroit on Friday. The game is scheduled for a 7:05pm tip.