Men’s Basketball Falls At ULM
The South Alabama men’s basketball team was outscored 36-21 in the second half as Louisiana-Monroe coasted to a 71-54 win on Thursday night.
The Jags shot only 26.9% from the floor after halftime en route to scoring the fewest points of the season. A 16-3 run late in the game secured the victory for the Warhawks.
USA falls to 9-19 overall and 3-12 in conference play while ULM improves to 9-14 overall and 6-9 in conference play.
Augustine Rubit was the only Jaguar in double digits scoring with 14, which was enough to move him into second place in the school’s All-Time scoring list with 1,868 points and into ninth place in Sun Belt history.
All five of ULM’s starters scored in double-digits. Jayon James had a game high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, Chinedu Amajoyi added 12 points and eight rebounds, Nick Coppola added 11 points and six assists and Tylor Ongwae and Marvin Williams both scored 10 points each.
“I really wanted see how we would come out and perform because we knew this was a game we needed to compete and win if we wanted to continue our season in the conference tournament,” head coach Matthew Graves said. “I thought we started off OK, not great, but we were in the game. We got down 10 in the first half and I thought our team showed a lot of resolve and came back and tied the game. But in the last four minutes we had three turnovers that got them in a rhythm.”
“At the start of the second half I was really disappointed in how we came out of the locker room,” Graves continued. “We missed a loose ball, got scored on in the post and it really snowballed from there. In this game, you’ve got to be strong and physical and have to want contact. They were the more physical, more aggressive team, and nine times out of 10 when that happens, you’re not going to come out on the side you want.”
The Jags play their final road game of the season on Sunday at Louisiana-Lafayette. Tip-off is scheduled for 3pm and in addition to the normal WNSP broadcast, it will also be available on the Sun Belt Network so check your local listings for availability.
USA Men’s Basketball Face ULM Tonight
South Alabama kicks off their final road swing of the regular season this evening against Louisiana-Monroe. The Jags used a hot first half against Troy to earn a much needed win 86-78 in their last game on Saturday.
The Jags are one game behind Troy and Texas State, who are both at 4-10 and tied for the eighth and final spot into the Sun Belt Conference Championship with four games left in the regular season.
ULM enters the game with an 8-14 record overall and a 5-9 record in conference play. The Jags lost to the Warhawks on January 18th at the Mitchell Center 64-58.
The two teams rank near each other in the Sagarin rankings. The Jags are ranked 241st while the Warhawks are ranked 232nd. The game can be heard on 105.5 FM WNSP or WNSP.com starting around 6:30pm with the pregame show and tipoff at 7pm.
USA Women’s Basketball Falls To ULM
The Lady Jaguar basketball team fell to Louisiana-Monroe on the road Wednesday night. Breanna Hall hit five three-pointers en route to a career-high 26 point night, but ULM’s 26-of-33 from the charity stripe, including 6-of-8 in the final minute, was enough to down the Jaguars 76-70.
The Jags fall to 7-18 on the season and 5-10 in Conference play. They have also fallen out of the eighth and final spot in the Conference Tournament by one game.
The Jags will play Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday in a 5:30pm tip-off that will be aired on the Sun Belt Network.
Baseball And Softball Games Cancelled Yesterday
Both the Softball and Baseball games that were scheduled for Wednesday were cancelled.
The Softball teams trip to Thibadaux was cancelled due to heavy rain in the area and the rescheduled date has not yet been determined. Though they will face each other this weekend in Gulfport for the Gulf Coast Softball Classic.
The baseball team’s game against Jacksonville State was also cancelled due to unplayable conditions at Eddie Stanky Field. Rain that pass through overnight Tuesday night continued into Wednesday morning forcing the cancellation.
No makeup date has been announced yet. The Jags will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas for a three-game weekend series against the #24 Razorbacks.
USA Softball Rises To 14 In Latest Poll; Takes On Nicholls State This Evening
Blair Johnson, a junior, earned her first SBC Player of the Week honor after batting .556 and driving in eight runs as the Jags went 4-0 over the weekend at the Diamond 9 2014 Citrus Classic in Orlando and defeated #17 Georgia. | Photo: usajaguars.com
The Jaguar Softball team moved up in the weekly polls again this week after going a perfect 5-0 on the week including a 3-2 win over then #17 ranked Georgia.
The Jags moved up to #14 in the USA Today/NFCA poll and to #16 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll. They were previously ranked #19 in both polls last week.
They will travel to Thibodaux, Louisiana for a mid-week matchup this afternoon at 5pm. The Jags are currently riding a six game winning streak into the game with an 11-1 overall record on the season.
Their only loss came against Northwestern in the 2014 Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge which they rebounded from and defeated the host, #21 ranked LSU Tigers. They were originally scheduled to go to Athens, Georgia for the Bulldog Classic, but it was cancelled due to weather concerns.
Blair Johnson was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week on Monday for her performance over the last week.
But the game against Nicholls State has lost of meaning as head coach Becky Clark would get her 400th win as a Jaguar if her team can prevail today.
USA Women’s Golf Finish 3rd In Tournament
Photo: Mike Kittrell al.com
South Alabama’s women’s golf team finished their 12th Annual USA Women’s Invitational Tournament at Azalea City Golf Course with a top three finish.
Elisa Axelsen recorded an even-par 36 on the back nine whiel Carianna Wright carded three birdies to lead the Jaguars in the final round. They both tied for seventh place in the individual standings.
Anna Lesher and Axelsen tied for the team’s low score in the final round by both shooting a 74. Carianna Wright finished the final round with a 75. Ashleigh Ryals recorded a 76 and Ingrid Hagen finished with a 79.
The Jags finished the final round with a 299, the lowest team score of the day to finished third among 15 schools participating. They were four strokes behind tournament champion Memphis and two shots behind second place finisher Jacksonville State.
They will return to the course in two weeks in the Lady Eagle Invitational in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for their third event of the spring season.
USA Baseball Defeats JSU 4-2
The Jaguar Baseball team put three runs across the plate in the bottom of the second inning as they defeated Jacksonville State Tuesday night at Eddie Stanky Field 4-2.
Jared Gates allowed only one run in 5 1/3 innings of work while striking out four with no walks to earn his first career win as a Jaguar. Bandon Haliford threw two shutout innings while striking out three to earn his first career save as a Jaguar.
The three run second inning began with Matt Mojciechowski doubling to right-center to lead off the inning. Then Erik Kindmon followed with a walk before Matt Bolger delivered a two-run triple to left-center in his first at-bat as a Jaguar to put the Jags on the board 2-0. Cameron Cummings followed with an RBI single to score the third and final run of the inning.
Through the first five innings Gates faced the minimum before surrendering a leadoff single to Andre Bishop. That would be followed by an RBI double from Tyler Gamble to cut the Jaguar lead to 3-1 in the top of the sixth inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, JSU’s designated hitter Paschal Petrongolo got on base with a two-out double to center, he was then replaced with pinch runner Ty Pierce. The next batter, Ryan Sebra, hit an RBI double to cut the Jaguar lead to one run, 3-2.
The Jaguars responded in the bottom half of the inning when Drew LaBounty led off the inning with a single to center. He would later score on a one-out RBI single to left field by Bud Collura.
In the top of the eighth inning with James Traylor pitching for the Jags, the Gamecocks threatened with a leadoff double then a walked batter put the tying run on first base with no outs. Hallford entered the game and got three straight outs, two of them being strikeouts.
The Jags improve to 3-4 on the season while JSU falls to 4-3. The Jags can even their season record this afternoon when they meet on the diamond again at 3pm.
USA Football Signs Another Defensive Lineman For 2014 Class
The South Alabama football program announced that they have signed Dondre Chanet to a National Letter-of-Intent on Monday. Chanet will enroll at USA in the fall.
Chanet is a 6’1″, 315-pound defensive lineman from Hutchison (KS) Community College and will join the Jaguars with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He brings the Jaguars 2014 recruiting class up to 22 student-athletes.
Last fall he was a second-team All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference selection after recording 33 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one recovered fumble and one pass break up. He recorded a season-best seven tackles, including one for a loss, against nationally ranked Butler (KS) CC.
He also recorded six tackles and a fumble recovery against Independence (KS) CC. He also helped his team defeat Dakota College at Bottineau 57-0 in the Salt Lake City Bowl to end the season ranked 17th in the final National Junior College Athletic Association poll.
He is the third JuCo defensive lineman to sign with South Alabama. They are filling big shoes left when a number of defensivie lineman graduated, some from the first-ever freshman recruiting class to sign with South Alabama.
The Jags finished 6-6 overall and 4-3 in Conference play in their first season as a full FBS member and fifth season of football ever.
USA Softball’s Johnson Named SBC Player of the Week
Blair Johnson, a junior, earned her first SBC Player of the Week honor after batting .556 and driving in eight runs as the Jags went 4-0 over the weekend at the Diamond 9 2014 Citrus Classic in Orlando and defeated #17 Georgia. | Photo: usajaguars.com
The South Alabama Softball’s Blair Johnson was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week for her performance over the past week, the conference office announced on Monday.
This is the first she has earned the award in her career and the second for a Jaguar this season.
Johnson, a junior from Kimberly, Alabama, went 10-for-18 a .556 batting average last week while driving in eight runs. She also had a .889 slugging percentage and a .526 on-base percentage as well.
She hit a two-run home run against the #17 Georgia Bulldogs to propel the Jaguars to a 3-2 win, their third over a nationally ranked team this season.
Against Lehigh, she drove in four RBI to tie the teams singe-game record.
For the season, Johnson is batting .429 with a .686 slugging percentage, 13 RBI which are both leading the team while it tied for the most hits on the team with 15.
Congratulations Blair! Go Jags!
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Roundup
Men’s Basketball
The Men’s basketball team took Coach Graves’ words to heart and went out and dominated the first half against Troy to help earn a 86-78 win on Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.
“What I told our guys was, this is a must win game,” head coach Matthew Graves said. “If you want to compete in New Orleans for a conference championship you have to win tonight. I thought our energy and effort from the opening tip was outstanding. We got off to a great start. The first half was as well-played a first half that we’ve had all year, on both ends of the floor. Then, in the second half, we really played to protect the lead instead of just playing the game and keep attacking. We got really conservative and I thought Troy got on a great run there. They have some tremendous shooters. Certainly if you give up 54 points in a half, you don’t expect to win very often, but our guys made enough plays down the stretch.”
The Jags jumped out to a 26 point lead in the first half but Troy would cut the lead down to only six points on two occasions in the second half but the Jags reponded each time to keep their hopes for a berth in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament alive.
Rubit earned a double-double in the game with a team-high 22 points and 10 rebounds. He also set a new career high with five assists while going 8-for-15 from the floor with two blocks. He also tied Terry Catledge for career double-doubles with 52 as he earned his 10th of the season.
Five Jaguars scored in double digits, a season-high for the team. Ken Williams added 18 points, one shy of a career high, with four assists. Senior Antoine Allen added 15 points off the bench while sophomore Barrington Stevens III and junior Mychal Ammons added 11 points each.
Williams scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half going 4-of-6 from three-point range. But then did not score again until 6:39 left in the second half, though they came at a key time for the Jaguars.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Williams sparked South Alabama to a 26-7 run to open the game.
Troy went on a 12-3 run as the Jaguars went almost six minutes without a field goal with 7:29 left in the game. But the Jags would answer with the next five points to stretch the lead back out to double digits.
“I thought we were flat,” Troy head coach Phil Cunningham said. “As I told the coaches before we left the huddle in the first half that we were flat. It’s obvious how big of a game this was, but I just sensed that we were flat. But I also sensed at halftime that we could get back in the game because in the last couple minutes of the first half, we made that little run on them. Give them credit, they made shots. They were lighting that thing up from everywhere in the first half.”
“I do think fatigue played a little bit of a factor,” Graves said of Troy’s comeback attempt. “We were on the road Thursday and with the quick turnaround and Aakim’s (Saintil) limited minutes due to foul trouble. I think those guys got tired, but at the same time, Troy has a couple guys that can really shoot the basketball. When they get feeling good and get in a rhythm, they’re certainly capable of making shots. We missed a couple switches and a couple things on our rotation. In large part, it was due to our fatigue and you have to credit Troy because they could have easily rolled over, but they kept fighting until the end.”
The Jaguars have a two-game road swing this week to close out their road games for the regular season. They will continue their fight to get into the conference tournament when they travel to Louisiana-Monroe on Thursday for a 7pm game.
Softball