USA Men’s Basketball Win Two Of Three In CBE Classic Over Weekend
Senior Augustine Rubit prepares to defend a Southern Miss player as they inbound the ball in the Jaguars loss to Southern Miss on Friday.
The South Alabama men’s basketball team played three games in three days for the CBE Classic held at the Mitchell Center. During the course of the weekend, the team went 2-1.
Southern Miss
On Friday night the Jaguars hosted Southern Miss to open their play in the CBE Classic. They started the game very well after USM scored the first three points of the game, but once the Jaguars took the lead, they did not look back for the remainder of the half.
With 6:57 left in the half, the Jags led by their largest margin yet with a 26-16 advantage, but USM would go on an 11-2 run in over a three minute span to cut USA’s lead to one point. They would manage to get the lead out to six points going into the locker room for halftime.
The Jags opened the second half with an 8-2 run then after an Antoine Allen trey, they led 53-40 with 10:42 left in the game. But the Golden Eagles would respond with 13-straight points with half of them coming from the charity stripe, to tie the game.
Rubit would sink one of two free throws on the other end of the court to regain the lead, but it was short as USM’s next trip down the floor they retook the lead, then extended it to four with a three-pointer with 2:47 left to play.
All-in-all, Southern Miss ended the game with a 26-6 run over the final 10-minutes of the game to defeat the Jaguars 66-59.
Augustine Rubit scored nine of his 17 points in the second half but only one point came in the final 10 minutes of play. Allen added 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc.
Wright State
The Jags returned to play on Saturday afternoon against Wright State and pulled out a 74-70 win behind Rubit’s 23 points and 13 rebounds while setting a new school record for career rebounds. He passed Terry Catledge with his 933rd career rebound in the first half and finished the game with 940 when the game ended. That number moves him into third all-time in Sun Belt Conference history as well.
This was Rubit’s 44th double-double of his career and his second of the season.
Houston Baptist
The men’s basketball team opened the second half with a 16-2 run to open up a huge lead to cruise to a 79-59 win over Houston Baptist on Sunday to end their play in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.
After halftime, the Jaguar defense zeroed in on their opponents and did not allow HBU an opportunity to get back into the game as they forced them to miss 13 of their first 14 shots in the second half and forced four turnovers in the first eight minutes of the half.
Ken Williams started a 10-0 run which was capped off by Dionte Ferguson when he scored five-consecutive points. Austin Karazsia added a triple during the run as well to help the Jags open up a 29 point advantage with 11:14 left in the game.
Augustine Rubit led all players with 17 points and 13 rebounds for back-to-back double-doubles. He scored 14 of those points in the first 12 minutes of play. Barrington Stevens III ended the game with a team-high four assists, part of a 12-assist effort.
The Jags only had seven turnovers the entire game, the fewest since they recorded seven turnovers at Denver on February 20, 2011.
Rubit’s march up the record books continued as he moved into third place in USA career free throw attempts with 605.
South Alabama will have the week off until they host former Sun Belt Conference rival Middle Tennessee State on Saturday. The game will tip off at noon and will be carried on CSS TV.