Texas Rallies Past USA In Second Half To Win 84-77
South Alabama men’s basketball team led by as many as 17 over the Texas Longhorns, but they outscored the Jags 53-32 in the second half including a 20-5 run at the end of the game to defeat the Jags 84-77 Tuesday night.
Jaguar senior Augustine Rubit scored a team-high 22 points, including the first nine of the game and his first two 3-pointers of his career. He also came down with a team-high of eight rebounds.
Fellow senior Antoine Allen nailed four first-half 3-pointers to tie his personal best. Mychal Ammons also had four three-pointers to add 16 points of his own.
The game was a tale of two halves. The first half was all Jaguars after they allowed Texas to score the first two points of the game, they would score the next six, including one of Rubit’s two triples. They would rush out to a 15-6 lead.
With 5:30 left till halftime, UT would cut the deficit to four points, but the Jags would respond with a 13-1 run to give the Jags a healthy 42-26 lead.
The second half was all Texas. The Longhorns trailed 72-64 with 7:30 left to play as Holmes started a 9-0 run to take their first lead since the opening shot of the game.
After a three to regain the lead, Texas tied it back up at 75-all. Ammons would give USA their final lead of the game with a layup, but the final points of the game would all go to Texas. They would make two free-throws then force a stop and convert it into a fast-break layup.
“First and foremost, I thought our team was well prepared,” USA head coach Matthew Graves said. “Our coaching staff did an excellent job of having our guys ready. We came out and attacked well versus their zone early. We did shoot a lot of 3s, but at the same time, when we went back and talked about it at halftime, they were good shots. We’ve got an undersized ballclub, but we have five starters that are all capable of making 3s.”
“In the second half, when Texas switched to their man-to-man defense, I was really disappointed with our ability to attack them. I thought once we had them spread out a little bit, we ended up driving the ball too much and we didn’t make the extra pass like we did in the first half. We had 10 assists in the first half and two in the second half. Against a man-versus-zone, it really shouldn’t be like that.”
“You have to credit Texas,” Graves said. “We had them down early and it’s a credit to them and their coaching staff that their players didn’t hang their heads and they came back and fought. Unfortunately we were on the wrong end tonight.”
Rubit moved into sixth place in school history with 1,421 points as he passed Demetric Bennett. He is also tied for sixth place in career blocks with 95 and is one shy of third place in career free throws made with 423.
South Alabama returns home to face Southern Miss on Monday, November 18 at the Mitchell Center as part of the CBE Classic. Tip off of that game is scheduled for 7:05pm.