Lady Jags Drop First Conference Game
Arkansas-Little Rock got 27 points from Taylor Gault while holding the Lady Jaguars to 14.3% shooting from outside the arc as the South Alabama women’s basketball team lost their first Sun Belt Conference game.
The Jags (4-9 overall, 2-1 SBC) were dominated defensively. Ronneka Robertson was the only Jaguar in double digits with ten points and eight rebounds. Meghan Dunn finished with nine points. Rachel Cumbo, who was averaging 18.5 points per game over the previous two Sun Belt Conference games and led the league in three-point shooting, was limited to one field goal attempt and two late free throws in the game.
The Jags made a season-low 2-of-14 from outside the three point arc.
Meanwhile South Alabama head basketball coach Terry Fowler said that the Jaguar defense, “just didn’t have the urgency level that we needed to have to give ourselves a chance [against] a team the caliber of Arkansas-Little Rock.” Gautl was 9-of-17 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point range while also making all three shots from the charity stripe.
South Alabama will travel to Jonesboro, Arkansas to face Arkansas State on Saturday at 3:05pm.
USA Men’s And Women’s Basketball Begin Two Game Road Trip
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams are on the road for a two-game road trip to Arkansas this week.
The Lady Jaguars look to extend their winning streak and to keep the Conference record perfect as they face Arkansas-Little Rock this evening in Little Rock, Arkansas. UALR is 1-1 on the season and 6-6 overall. The Jags are 4-8 overall and 2-0 in Sun Belt play.
The Lady Jags then face Arkansas State on Saturday afternoon with a 3:05pm tip in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The Red Wolves are 8-6 overall and also 2-0 in Sun Belt play.
The men’s team is in the midst of a four-game losing streak and have dropped their first two conference games to Western Kentucky (56-58) and Georgia State (63-73) both at the Mitchell Center. They look to even their conference record and improve their road record as they also face Arkansas-Little Rock and Arkansas State this week.
The Jags will start with UALR on Thursday evening with a 7pm tipoff in Little Rock. UALR is 7-7 overall for the season and 2-0 in conference play. The Jags are 6-9 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
The Jags will then face Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday night with a 7pm tip. The Red Wolves are 9-4 overall and are also 2-0 in Sun Belt play.
While the conference season has not started the way first-year head coach Matthew Graves had wanted, but he believes his team can continue to get better and make this season a success. In his post-game comments, Graves said that he thought Augustine Rubit and Mychal Ammons both were taking too few shots and that, as a team, they need to be more aggressive. He also called himself out saying that he needs to do a better job of motivating his players to be more physical and more aggressive.
But the bottom line that, if he had a pen, would have been that he wants to see more passion out of his team. He said it doesn’t matter if its whether they make a shot or make a mistake. He does not want to see them feel sorry for themselves when they are not making shots.
Graves also pointed out that they are only three or four possessions away from turning several games into wins. He also thought that those possessions are really generated by how much energy, excitement and passion for playing that they have.
USA Women’s Basketball Defeat GSU, Improve To 2-0 In Conference Play
The South Alabama Women’s basketball team picked up a 65-57 win over conference newcomer Georgia State on Saturday. The Lady Jags improved their record to 4-8 overall and 2-0 in Conference play. Georgia State falls to 5-9 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
USA was led by Rachel Cumbo’s 20 points, a career high for her, as she went 7-of-13 from the floor and 4-of-6 from three-point range. She also added seven rebounds before she fouled out of the game.
Breanna Hall added 12 points, 11 of them coming in the second half, as she went 3-of-6 from teh field and 4-of-7 from the free throw line. Colby Davis added 10 points. Ronneka Robertson fell just short of a double-double with with eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Panthers managed to force 21 turnovers, 13 of them steals, but USA held a 19-17 edge in points off turnovers.
“Our players are playing with so much confidence right now,” first-year South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler said. “To come out and have a great start, Rachel (Cumbo) made some threes early and Ronneka (Robertson) made a couple of big baskets in the post, gave us some confidence right away. We just played inside out. We did exactly what we wanted to. They really took away Meghan Dunn tonight, but Breanna (Hall) was able to step up and make some plays, so it was a team effort. I couldn’t be more proud of how we fought, hung in there and the way we were able to finish the game and be able to get off to a 2-0 start in the Sun Belt.”
The Lady Jaguars will travel to Arkansas-Little Rock on Wednesday for a 7pm tipoff at the Jack Stephens Center as they look to improve their conference record to 3-0 on the season.
Arkansas State Defeats Ball State 23-20, Sun Belt Goes 2-0 In Bowl Games
Arkansas State claims their second consecutive GoDaddy Bowl win in dramatic fashion as the Sun Belt Conference won both of their bowl games this post-season.
Arkansas State led 16-13 before Ball State scored a touchdown with 1:33 left in the game to take a 20-16 lead over the Red Wolves. R.J. Fleming returned the ensuing kickoff to the Red Wolves’ 41 yard line. On the third play of the drive, Fredi Knighten found J.D. McKissic for a 26-yard strike to the Ball State 19 yard line. Then two plays later Knighten found Allen Muse open in the end zone for a 13 yard touchdown to give Arkansas State a 23-20 lead.
Ball State started on their own 36 yard line with all three of their time outs. They got to the Red Wolves’ 46 yard line with six seconds left in the game. Ball State quarterback Keith Wenning connected with Willie Snead for a 10 yard gain to the ASU 36 yard line with two seconds left in the game. However the Red Wolves would be penalized for a late hit out of bounds to move the Cardinals 15 yards closer to the ASU 21 yard line.
Ball State then sent on their field goal kicker, Scot Secor, to attempt a game-tying 38 yard field goal, but the Arkansas State’s Ryan Carrethers sped around the corner and blocked the kick to preserve the win for Arkansas State.
“I just want to say that it takes special, special young men to do what they have done,” Arkansas State interim head coach John Thompson said after the game. “And to do what they did tonight, that was an example of the kind of people they are. They’re fighters, and they overcame, and they’re people that I’ve got great respect for.”
Arkansas State has hired their third coach in the last three seasons as each of the previous head coaches have spent one season with ASU and was offered higher-profile positions. Hugh Freeze spent one season there before becoming the head coach at Ole Miss. Gus Malzahn was there last season before accepting the head coaching position at Auburn. Bryan Harsin was named the head coach at Boise State University on December 13th.
Blake Anderson was named the new head coach on December 19, he was the offensive coordinator for Larry Fedora at North Carolina and Southern Miss before that. His contract is for five years for $700,000 per with a $3 million buyout for the first two years.
Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Tulane 24-21 in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on December 21 in the Sun Belt’s only other bowl appearance this bowl season.
USA Falls to Georgia State 73-63 On Saturday
Georgia State powered their way past the Jaguars 73-63 on Saturday behind R.J. Hunter’s 30 points. The Jaguars fall to 6-9 overall and 0-2 in Sun Belt play. The Panthers improve to the opposite of the Jaguars record with an overall record of 9-6 and 2-0 in Sun Belt play.
Hunter was 6-of-12 from the field overall and 5-of-9 from three point range while converting all 13 free throw attempts. He scored 21 of his 30 points in the first half.
At halftime the Jaguars trailed by only three points despite Hunter’s 21 points and the Panthers eight 3-pointers. The second half opened with a 7-0 Panther run to make the score 46-36. Later in the half, Augustine Rubit grabbed a rebound and madet he putback, then Aakim Saintil made two free throws to cut the Panther lead to eight points, but another 7-0 run gave them their largest lead of the game at 61-46.
USA answered with their own 7-0 run to cut the Panther lead to 68-61 with 2:43 left in the game, but the Panters would quickly add five points with three free throws by Hunter and a Markus Crider layup after a Jaguar miss to put the Panthers up 73-61 with 1:26 left.
“Obviously I’m disappointed in the start of conference play; 0-2 is certainly not where you want to be, but if these are the two best teams then we’re not that far off,” South Alabama head coach Matthew Graves said in his post-game comments. “I didn’t want our guys to be satisfied because they’re going to hear those are the two best teams. Well, who knows? We’re two games in and we’re trending in the wrong direction and there’s no question about that. We have to be a lot more disciplined and play with a better purpose.”
“That’s what an all-league player is supposed to do,” Graves said about R.J. Hunter’s performance for the Panthers. “He comes in and is aggressive and plays with a chip on his shoulder. I think he was excited to come here on the road and prove that he is one of the best players in the league. I don’t think there was any doubt tonight who the best player on the floor was.”
Ken Williams led the Jags with 19 points while adding seven rebounds. he scored 11 of his 19 points after halftime. Augustine Rubit was the only other Jaguar to score in double digits with 11 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double, his sixth of the season.
Mychal Ammons finished just short of a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds. Though he also added three blocked shots.
“I was really encouraged,” Graves commented on Williams’ performance. “It was nice to see Ken make some shots and hopefully this will give him confidence as we move forward. It’s always good for a shooter to see shots go in. I was really proud that he was able to step up and make some shots. It really started and I’m going to tell him this, early in the game he was attacking the basket and not settling for that ‘3’ early in the game. I liked his mindset in that regard and hopefully his shooting will continue to carry over.”
“I think both of those guys were probably a little too unselfish if you want to call it that for now,” Graves said about Rubit and Ammons. “They need to be more assertive when they get the ball. They need to go through guys and take guys up there with them. I told them I can’t remember the last time we had an ‘and-1’ finish. We drove it in three or four times tonight and they may have called the foul or may have not and we’re still missing the shot. We just have to have a more aggressive, attacking mentality when we’re going to the rim.”
South Alabama will travel to Arkansas-Little Rock on Thursday. The game will get underway at 7pm.
Jags Fall To Rival WKU In Final Seconds
In true rivalry fashion South Alabama and Western Kentucky was a hard fought game and was decided in the final seconds. After calling a time out with 29.2 seconds left in the game, Hilltopper Chris Harrison-Docks sunk a high floating shot from the lane with 4.3 seconds left to give WKU a 58-56 win in their final trip to the Mitchell Center as a member of the Sun Belt Conference.
On the other end of the floor, the Jags had a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime, but despite a good look at the basket, Augustine Rubit’s shot from about 14 feet came up short as time expired.
USA led by as many as eight points on three seperate occasions early in the second half, but the Hilltoppers increased the pressure and forced turnovers to open an 8-0 run to tie the game. After an Aaron Adeoye layup, the ‘toppers used turnovers by the Jags to convert back-to-back 3-pointers to open up a lead. But the Jags would battle back and from that point on the largest lead by either team would be four points.
Mychal Ammons posted a team-high 15 points with three assists while Augustine Rubit added 10 points and nine rebounds. Antoine Allen also added 10 points for the Jags.
WKU’s T.J. Price led all scorers with 19 points while Harrison-Docks came off the bend to add 11 points and four assists. George Fant earned a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Only the second loss of the season at home puts the Jags at 6-8 overall and 0-1 in Sun Belt play. WKU improves to 9-5 overall and 1-0 in Sun Belt play.
After being outrebounded 25-15 in the first half, they closed the gap to 40-36 for the game. Despite winning the last three meetings, the Hilltoppers trail 33-32 in their all-time record. The Jags are the only Sun Belt school who has a winning record all-time against WKU.
South Alabama will host Georgia State on Saturday for a 4:05pm tip at the Mitchell Center.
Jones To Begin Search For New WR Coach Friday
South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones told AL.com that he will formally begin the search for a new wide receivers coach on Friday. Jones is replacing Jerry Mack who accepted the head coaching position at North Carolina Central University after coaching the wide receivers at USA for the last two seasons.
“Really I haven’t talked to anybody, although I’ve had several inquiries,” Jones was quoted by AL.com. “I’m going to deal with it starting Friday. I’m starting to set up some interviews and I’m making a few calls. … I’ve got about four of five names, guys that I like, that I’m going to pursue.”
Currently he does not anticipate any other changes to the coaching staff before next season, though he cautioned that that could always change quickly.
Jones also announced that spring practice will begin on March 10 and will go for four week and end on April 5. In prior seasons the team would begin in mid-to-late February and would take time off in the middle of drills for spring break. This season they decided to wait until after spring break to being practice.
The four Junior College signees are expected to enroll prior to the beginning of the semester and would be eligible to participate in spring practice.
Two of the signees were All-America selections: Jimmie Gipson III (DE/OLB) from East Mississippi CC and Braedon Bowman (TE) from Scottsdale AZ CC. They also signed Nigel Green (S) from Mississippi Gulf Coast CC and Demaris Rancifer (LB) from Pearl River CC.
Louisiana-Lafayette and Tulane, both teams the Jaguars faced this past season, played in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl where the Ragin’ Cajun’s defeated the Green Wave 24-21 in what Jaguar fans referred to as the “Lost to South Alabama Bowl”.
The only other team to receive a bowl invite from the Sun Belt, Arkansas State, will play on Sunday at Ladd-Peebles stadium in the GoDaddy.com Bowl against Ball State.
The Jags, though they were bowl eligible in their first season of eligibilty, were not extended a bowl invite. The Jags lost to the Red Wolves 17-16 in Mobile but defeated Louiana-Lafayette in the regular season finale to allow Arkansas State claim a share of the Conference championship.
Two Arkansas State players said they were very impressed at how the Jags played this season. Also ASU fans also reached out Jaguar fans to come to the bowl game and join them in their tailgating festivities on Sunday, January 5.
Jags Host ‘Toppers For Final Time As SBC Rivals
The Jaguar Men’s Basketball team will renew their conference rivalry with Western Kentucky one last time in the Mitchell Center on Thursday evening. The Hilltoppers will join Conference USA next season for the 2014-2015 year.
The Jags have had a rough month of December with four road games, three of them against top 100 RPI schools. They went 2-4 in December and enter the game with an overall record of 6-7 as they begin their Conference schedule.
Senior Augustine Rubit is averaging 17.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Those rank seventh and third in the conference respectively and became the all-time leading rebounder in the conference on Saturday against New Mexico State.
The Hilltoppers rely on T.J. Price and George Fant. Price is right behind Rubit with an average of 17.1 points per game while Fant averages 14.1 points per game. In their 79-74 loss to Ole Miss on Monday, Price scored 26 points with six 3-pointers while Fant added 23 points against Brescia (KY.) on December 28.
Jaguar head coach Matthew Graves understands that Price and Fant are as good as any duo in the conference. “They’re tough, they’re physical, they have a presence about them and they have a swagger about them,” Graves said. “They’re the defending conference champs so they have a bit of an ego and that’s a good thing if you’re a Western Kentucky fan. We’ll certainly have our hands full but I think the way we guard in our system, it’s a team defense so it’s not one guy guarding Price and one guy guarding Fant. It’s our five guys defending Western Kentucky.”
“We understand that, especially for Price, he’s going to make some tough shots. That’s what he does, but how many times can we make him take those tough shots and not give him easy baskets? With Fant, you really have to match his energy. He does a great job of scoring around the basket, attacking the goal, getting to the free-throw line and getting offensive rebounds. Can we play as hard as he’s going to play? I think our guys are going to be ready for that challenge.”
The Jags and the Hilltoppers tipoff for the final time as Conference Rivals in the Mitchell Center at 5:05pm.
Lady Jags Upset Western Kentucky 74-65 To Open Conference Play
The South Alabama women’s basketball team upset Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Wednesday afternoon 74-65 to open their Sun Belt Conference schedule. The Jags had four players in double figures as the Jags improved to 3-8 (1-0 SBC) on the season.
Meghan Dunn led the Jags with a career high 21 points as she went 7-of-13 from the floor and hitting both 3-point attempts. She was also a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.
Rachel Cumbo added 17, just short of tying her career high, on 4-of-6 shooting with all four coming from outside the three-point arc by going 4-of-5 from three-point range. She was also 5-of-6 from the free throw line and had seven rebounds in her 32 minutes on the floor.
Brittany Webb set a new career-high with 14 points as she shot 4-of-6 from floor and 2-of-2 from from 3-point range while hitting all four free throw attempts. Colby Davis chipped in 10 points by going 8-of-11 from the free throw line.
The Jags as a team was 25-of-32 from the charity stripe. They outshot the hilltoppers 20-for-48 (43.5%) for the game and shot 55% in the second half with four three-pointers and shot 75% from long range for the game.
Western Kentucky fell to 8-4 (0-1 SBC) in their final visit as Sun Belt Conference rivals to the Mitchell Center. They were led by Chastity Gooch’s game-high 26 points and nine rebounds. Bianca McGee was the only other hilltopper to score in double-digits for the game with 17 points. They were without their leading scorer and preseason player of the year Alexis Govan due to a foot injury.
The Jags will host first-year SBC member Georgia State at the Mitchell Center on Saturday with tipoff set for 2:05pm.