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.
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
USA Loses Heartbreaker To Texas State On Last Second Free Throws In Overtime
The South Alabama men’s basketball team fought hard down the stretch and rallied from a five point deficit with 36.7 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime. But two late free throws gave Texas State the 67-66 win in overtime.
A three-pointer from sophomore Barrington Stevens III tied the game with under 19 seconds left in the game. Stevens had a chance to win the game with a layup but it would not go sending the game to overtime.
In overtime, neither team led by more than two points and the final six points all came from the free throw line. A three-pointer from Augustine Rubit with under 42 seconds left in the game put the Jaguars up 64-63.
Joel Wright sunk two free throws to give the Bobcats a 65-64 advantage. On the Jaguars next possession, Mychal Ammons was fouled and sunk both of his free throw attempts to regain the lead 66-65.
After a Texas State time out, they got the ball into Wright’s hands and a foul was called on Ammons as he was driving the baseline with two seconds left. Wright sunk both of his attempts to give the Bobcats the victory.
“We have good kids in that locker room and they care,” head basketball coach Matthew Graves said after the game. “We just need to understand that you have to play a full 40 minutes, and in this case a full 45, and we just had too many lapses tonight where we didn’t have enough of a sense of urgency from start to finish.”
“Our shot selection late in the first half really hurt us,” Graves continued. “We took three bad shots in a row and didn’t work the basketball. In the second half, we showed some resolve. We were down five with 30 seconds to go and Barrington made a really nice play and scored. In overtime, it went back and forth. We did some nice things and it came down to that last play.”
Rubit finished the game with seven rebounds and 22 points, which puts him in 12th place in Sun Belt History in points scored. Mychal Ammons earned a double-double, his first back-to-back since the beginning of the 2012-13 season, with 15 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out with two seconds left in the overtime period.
No other Jaguar scored in double-digits.
Reid Koenen scored 26 points for the Bobcats. Joel Wright added 21 points and eight rebounds. Only four other Bobcats scored points in the game, none scored more than six.
The loss puts USA in a tough position with an 8-18 record overall and a 2-11 record in conference play, they are two games out of the eighth and final spot in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament with five games left to play. They play Texas State again in just under two weeks but first they host Troy on Saturday. Tip off is scheduled for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center.
USA Men’s Basketball Faces Texas State Tonight
South Alabama and Texas State will face each other for the first time on the hardwood tonight in San Marcos, Texas.
The Jags enter the game after an impressive win over rival Western Kentucky on the road to pick up their first road victory of the season and improving their overall record to 8-17, 2-10 in conference play. The win also kept their hopes alive for a post-season berth in the SBC Conference Tournament in New Orleans.
Texas State is 7-18 overall and 3-9 in conference play and coming off of a 68-41 loss to Sun Belt leading Georgia State. A win in this game would even the Jaguars conference record with the bobcats with five games to go.
The Jags are two games behind Troy for the eighth and final spot in in the Conference Tournament. In the final six games of the season, USA will face Texas State twice and has Troy in Mobile.
The game can be heard on 105.5FM WNSP and their website WNSP.com.
Men’s Basketball Ends Six-Game Skid And Sends WKU A Farewell Loss
The South Alabama men’s basketball team ended their six-game losing streak at Western Kentucky to bid farewell to the Hilltoppers, 69-62. This is the first road win for the Jaguars this season and could not have come at a better time.
The Jags never trailed in the game and built up a 19-point advantage at one point in the game. Augustine Rubit and Mychal Ammons both turned in double-double’s in the Jags final regular season game against WKU before they join Conference USA this summer.
Ammons led all players with a season-high 20 points and added 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. That was the most points by Ammons since December 1, 2012.
Rubit came away with a game-high 13 rebounds with 12 points and five blocks, tying his career best, to earn his first double-double in six games.
“We came in with a plan to win,” head coach Matthew Graves said. “The bottom line is our guys really communicated with one another. They understood this was a big game. This is a tough place to come in and play. Their fans are really good. We needed to come in here and play with energy and effort and communicate with each other, and from the opening tip we did that throughout the entire game.”
“I’m really proud,” Graves said. “It’s no secret Mychal has really struggled lately. Hopefully this will jumpstart him for the rest of the reason and we can continue to build off this. His mindset was just different tonight. He came in and attacked the rim. He didn’t settle too much. I’m really proud of how he bounced back.”
The Hilltoppers used two 10-2 runs in the second half to cut the 19-point Jaguar lead down to just seven with 5:32 left in the game. But Ammons and Rubit both held firm and answered each run to keep the Jaguars in the lead.
The Jags forced misses on three-consecutive possessions and got a layup from Aakim Saintil and three free throws from Antoine Allen adn Rubit to keep the Hilltoppers at bay.
“Well the one thing I told our players is WKU is a great program,” Graves said. “They have a culture and toughness about them, They’re going to make a run. We’ve just got to stay the course, continue to make hard cuts, and make good plays at the rim. Tonight, what we did different than in the past is when teams would make a run, we would settle for contested 3s or late-shot clock 3s and we did that a little tonight, but we also got a couple layups. Mike and Aug attacked the basket. We got to the free throw line. Guys stepped up for us and made some free throws for us down the stretch.”
Rubit passed Ed Rains for third place in school history and 13th place in conference history with 1,810 points and is only two away from 12th place. He also is within one double-double of Terry Catledge for first place in school history in the category with his 51st.
The Jags improve to 8-17 overall, 2-10 in conference play. While they are still in last place in Conference Standings, the Jags are only two games out of the eighth and final spot for in the conference tournament. The Jags have six games left this regular season.
The Jags will travel to Texas State on Thursday in the first of two games left this season against the Bobcats. Tipoff is scheduled for 7pm.
Jags Fall To Arkansas State
Arkansas State, already up 10-2 early in the game, used a 20-2 run which included 18 unanswered points to comfortably defeat the Jaguars on Thursday night 85-61.
This is the Jaguars worst home loss since the 2008-09 season.
The Jags fall for the sixth consecutive game, running their record to 7-17 overall and 1-10 in Conference play while Arkansas State improves to 14-8 overall and 7-4 in Conference play.
The Jags are in last place in the Sun Belt Conference standings. Only the top eight will play in the Conference tournament in New Orleans. Currently Texas State holds the eighth and final spot with a 3-7 conference record with Troy a half-game behind at 3-8.
With seven games remaining on the Jaguars schedule, they still have a shot to make the conference tournament, but they have to turn around their season fast.
They have Texas State twice, Troy once, Western Kentucky, ULM, ULL and Texas-Arlington remaining on the schedule.
The Jags will travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky on Saturday to face the Hilltoppers. The game is scheduled to be aired on ESPN3 as well as WNSP.
Women’s Basketball Falls To ASU; Men Play Tonight
USA Women’s Basketball fell to Arkansas State 71-58 on Wednesday as a result of a limited roster and an overabundance of turnovers.
The Jags were 20-for-42 from the floor, but committed 26 turnovers in the loss. The Jags fall to 7-14 on the season and 5-6 in Conference play. ASU improves to 16-8 overall and 10-2 in the Conference.
They will return to action for a two-game road swing beginning on Saturday against Western Kentucky, which will be the Jaguars and Hilltoppers final regular season game against each other as Sun Belt Conference members.
Tonight the Men’s team hosts Arkansas State.
USA Women’s Basketball Host Arkansas State This Morning
The South Alabama Women’s basketball team will host Sun Belt Conference leader Arkansas State this morning for it’s annual “Pack The House” game. Tip off is scheduled for 11:30am at the Mitchell Center with several elementary students from the local area invited for the game.
The Jags (7-13 overall, 5-5 SBC) fell at Troy almost a week ago on the road. They led early but a slump in play and an injury to starting point guard Brittany Webb gave Troy the opportunity to overtake the Jags and win the game.
Webb suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.
Without Webb, the Jaguar offense committed 27 turnovers and shot only 25.8% in the second half. The time between their last game and this game allowed head coach Terry Fowler and his team to make adjust his lineup to fill the void left by Webb’s injury and to try to hold onto their position and play in the Conference Tournament.
Men’s And Women’s Basketball Fall At Troy
Men’s Basketball
South Alabama men’s basketball team tried to rally late at Troy Thursday night but their rally fell short 79-74 as the Trojans end their five-game losing streak.
Troy’s Hunter Williams scored 21 of his game-high 26 points in the second half by hitting seven three-pointers.
The Jagaurs late rally was came from Troy’s inability to convert from the free-throw line. They used a 9-3 run to cut into the 12-point deficit but still trailed 78-74 with 22.7 seconds left. They would miss a 3-pointer on its next possession and could not get any closer.
Augustine Rubit scored 25 points, his most since his career-high 35 points on December 14 against Ganzaga. Barrington Stevens III and Ken Williams both added 13 points as Stevens set a new career high with six assists. Williams hit on three 3-pointers as well.
Mychal Ammons came down with eight rebounds while.
“We did a great job on Williams in the first half,” South Alabama head coach Matthew Graves said. “The problem is we have to sustain it for 40 minutes—it’s a 40-minute game—and we’ve had different issues like this during the season where we’ve not been able to put together a complete game. A shooter like Williams, all it takes is one to go in. We didn’t switch a ball-screen and he got a ‘3,’ we didn’t trail a stagger (screen) and he got a ‘3,’ and the two that he got that were ridiculous, those are the ones that go in because he’s feeling comfortable.”
“Unfortunately a good offensive effort was wasted again tonight because we didn’t dig down and guard.”
“When you get hit in the mouth with a punch, you have to get back off the deck and go back at them or you can stand there and keep getting punched,” Graves said. “Unfortunately, too many times we get punched and you run out of time. They were giving us opportunities down the stretch with missed free throws, but by that time you’ve really put yourself in a bind.”
The Jaguars will have a week off before returning to action against Arkansas State at the Mitchell Center on February 13 for a 7:05pm.
Women’s Basketball
The South Alabama Women’s basketball team committed 27 turnovers which led to 29 points by the Trojans as the Lady Jaguars fell 78-53 at Troy.
The Jaguars were led by Breanna Hall with 12 points, three assists and three steals. Meghan Dunn added 11 points for her 14th double-digit game of the season. Ronneka Robertson ended with eight points and 10 rebounds as she fell just short of a double-double.
USA shot only 25.8% in the second half and 35.6% for the whole game from the floor.
Troy’s Joanna Harden, the Sun Belt’s leading scorer, led all players with 30 points as she was 11-of-27 from the field and 4-of-11 from long range.
Brittany Webb was injured during the game and miss the remained of it. “(The loss of Webb) changed our whole rotation,” Jaguar head coach Terry Fowler said. “She’s our primary ball-handler and that changed everything. Meghan Dunn had to play the whole game and guard hard. I thought fatigue and frustration set in for us. Those are two tough things to overcome.”
The Lady Jags fall to 7-13 overall and 5-5 in the Sun Belt.
The Lady Jags will have most of a week off before returning to action against Arkansas State on February 12 at the Mitchell Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 11:30am.
USA Falls To Hot Shooting Georgia State In Atlanta
Jaguar seniors Antoine Allen and Augustine Rubit scored 19 and 16 points on Monday night in Atlanta against Georgia State, but was not enough to overcome the hot shooting Panthers 85-65.
The win extended the Panthers school record winning streak to 13 games and improves them to 16-6 overall and a perfect 9-0 in Sun Belt play. The Jags fell to 7-15 overall and only 1-8 in Conference play.
The numbers do not lie, Georgia State converted 65.2% from the floor in the first half and over 72% from outside the arc. Their top three scorers combined to go 10-of-15 from three-point range.
GSU jumped out to a 17 point lead on a 15-2 run midway through the first half. Manny Atkins opened the run with a three in the first of six consecutive possessions with a score for the Panthers. Ryan Harrow scored seven of the 15 points during that run including the final two points.
The Jags kept chipping away at the lead in the second half and held the Panthers without a field goal for 4:39 as Rubit and Allen combined for 14 of the Jaguars 19 points during to begin the half.
A three by Allen would trim the lead down to 57-46 with 9:05 left in the game, but GSU would score eight of the next 10 points and 14 of the next 19 points to take a 20 point lead on USA with 5:26 left in the game.
Allen led the Jags with 19 points as he went 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from from three-point range. Rubit added 16 points and six rebounds. Ken Williams was the only other Jag to reach double-digits scoring with 10. Barrington Stevens III had a team high five assists to go with his five points.
R.J. Hunter led all scorers with 24 points as he went 7-of-9 from the field and 5-of-6 from long range. Ryan Harrow and Manny Atkins both added 20 points each. Curtis Washington was the only other Panther in double-digits with 10 points.
“Tonight we had a gameplan of not letting certain guys shoot 3s and laying off a couple of others, but unfortunately they were 8-for-11 from the 3s and the Harrow kid, who normally shoots 26 percent from 3, made three out of four and got them in a really good rhythm,” Jaguar head coach Matthew Graves said after the game. “They’re very talented offensively and once they get going they’re hard to stop.”
“I felt like in the second half, we made a nice adjustment defensively and made it tough in that first 10-to-12 minutes,” Graves said. “We kept them off balance and kept attacking, but with a team like this at home, you can only take so many punches. They kept making big shots and big 3-pointers. When a team shoots 63 percent on you, you’re asking for a long night.”
“Our two seniors did what seniors are supposed to do on the road and it was good that they stepped up and shot a good percentage,” Graves stated. “When Antoine takes good shots, he’s more than capable of making them and if he plays within the offense, he can really do some positive things for us.”
“I did think we did a better job of getting Augustine and Mychal (Ammons) the ball down inside. I know it doesn’t show in Mychal’s numbers per se but he got more touches than he normally does and Aug was able to get free early. In the first half he had three turnovers so he has to understand once we get him the ball he’s got to be strong with it and continue to take it up towards the basket.”
“I was really encouraged offensively. We had 14 assists on 26 field goals, which is moving in the right direction, like we did in the last game,” Graves continued. “We had nine turnovers in the first half and finished the game with 12, so we did a better job of taking care of the ball. I’m hoping we’re starting to build some positive momentum on the offensive end of the floor as we move into our game on Thursday.”
South Alabama will travel to Troy on Thursday to face their in-state rival. Tip off is scheduled for 7:30pm and can be heard on 105.5 WNSP and WNSP.com.