USA’s Farish Beard Named Pitcher Of The Week Again
Junior Farish Beard struck out 36 in her 18 innings pitched during the Gulf Coast Invitational to earn lead the Jaguars to a 4-1 record. | Photo usajaguars.com
On Monday the Sun Belt Conference office named South Alabama’s Farish Beard the Conference Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season.
Beard (9-1) struck out a career-high 15 batters in one game, the second-most in a single game for a Jaguar, and it came in her second career no-hitter against UT-San Antonio. Beard was 3-0 in her three starts over the weekend with a total of 36 strikeouts in 18 innings, for an average of two strikeouts per inning, and only allowing a pair of hits and no earned runs.
After her performance over the weekend her ERA fell to a conference leading 0.15 as she held opponents to a 0.34 batting average with complete game shutouts against Ohio and UTSA. She also leads the conference in opposing batting average of 0.83, wins, fewest runs allowed with 4 and fewest earned runs allowed with 1.
Beard previously was given the same honor on February 10 for her performance in the Mardi Gras Invitational. Through four weeks of voting a Jaguar has earned a weekly award three of those weeks as Blair Johnson earned Player of the Week last week.
USA travels to Boca Raton, Florida for the Parents’ Weekend Invitational this weekend, hosted by former Sun Belt Conference member Florida Atlantic. The Jags will face Marshall University, Virginia Tech, Illinois, FAU, and Illinois again.
USA Women’s Basketball Fall In Overtime 68-61
South Alabama’s woes continue as they lost their seventh consecutive game, this time in overtime, to Louisiana-Lafayette in the Cajundome 68-61.
The losing streak began against Troy on February 6, the game in which Brittany Webb was injured and lost for the remainder of the season. The team was already thin, but was extremely thin at point guard.
After dropping their last seven consecutive games, the lady Jaguars stand at 7-19 overall and 5-11 in conference play. They have fallen out of the top eight, who will fill the eight seeds for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in New Orleans which is fast approaching.
With two games remaining, they are two games behind a trio of teams sitting at 7-9 in the conference. The Jags would have to win out and get some help from those teams ahead of them in order to potentially make the conference tournament. The math is pretty simple actually, win two games and ULM lose two games and the Jaguars are in.
Both games are at home for the Jaguars which could be just the help they need to get back into the win column. At least it would give them momentum going into the offseason. ULM will play the final two games of the season on the road at Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock, the first and third place teams in the conference.
As for the game itself, Ronnka Robertson posted a career performance with 28 points and 17 rebounds. But in overtime, the Cajuns outshot the Jags at the free throw line which made the difference. ULL was 9-of-10 from the free throw stripe, while the Jaguars were only 5-of-10.
The Lady Jags will try to do their part on Wednesday when they host Texas State at the Mitchell Center for a 7:05pm tipoff.
USA Men’s Basketball Cannot Overcome ULL’s Fast Start
South Alabama could not overcome a fast start by Louisiana-Lafayette and a 25-point halftime lead to fall 102-76 on Sunday in the Cajundome.
ULL used a 25-6 run over an 11-minute span in the first half to score the most first half points against the Jaguars all season. Bryant Mbamalu scored a game-high 32 points for the Cajuns and 11 of his 17 first half points in the opening 4:07 of the game.
Freshman Ken Williams recorded a career-high 22 points on five three-pointers. Sophomore Barrington Stevens III added a career-high 20 points while going 4-for-4 from outside the arc. They combined to score 31 of the Jaguars 49 points in the second half.
Augustine Rubit narrowly missed another double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds as he added four blocks to earn his way into the top 25 in the conference in this category.
This was the first Jaguar opponent to score over 100 points on the Jaguars since New Orleans on February 5, 1995.
With the loss, the Jaguars fall to 9-20 overall and 3-13 in conference play and only one game in the win column behind eighth place and the final seed in the conference tournament.
With the loss the Jaguars were eliminated from the Sun Belt Tournament and with that news Augustine Rubit’s phenominal career in a South Alabama jersey will conclude on Saturday against UT-Arlington.
The Jags will face Texas State on Thursday and UT-Arlington on Saturday to close out the season and hopefully have some positive momentum going into the offseason.
The 2014 South Alabama Football Schedule Has Been Released
The Jaguars rally at mid field after they enter the field to just prior to kickoff against Western Kentucky on Saturday, September 14, 2013.
This morning the Sun Belt Conference released the conference schedule. We already knew the Jags non-conference schedule but the SBC schedule was still up in the air at to who the team would be facing.
There are two SEC schools on the schedule and no FCS opponents.
The departure of Western Kentucky and the additions of Georgia Southern and Appalachian State as full members and New Mexico State and Idaho as football only members shuffled the schedules somewhat.
You will notice the Jags do not play ULM or New Mexico State this season, but they do travel to App. State and Idaho while hosting Georgia Southern.
After hosting Kent State, the will return to Ohio to face them again. The Jags will wrap up the season with two non-conference games against an SEC opponent in South Carolina and the Naval Academy.
Below is the full schedule for the Jags this season. Mark your calendars and get those tailgating and traveling plans started. We are just over six months away from kickoff of the 2014 season!
9/6 South Alabama @ Kent State
9/13 Miss. State @ South Alabama
9/20 Georgia Southern @ South Alabama
9/27 South Alabama @ Idaho
10/4 South Alabama @ Appalachian State
10/11 OPEN
10/18 Georgia State @ South Alabama
10/25 Troy @ South Alabama
11/1 South Alabama @ Louisiana-Lafayette
11/8 South Alabama @ Arkansas State
11/15 Texas State @ South Alabama
11/22 South Alabama @ South Carolina
11/28 Navy @ South Alabama
*NOTE: Kickoff times have not yet been announced.
“We are extremely excited about our 2014 schedule. Most people have pointed to this year since the beginning of the football program as one with peaked interest and enthusiasm,” Athletics Director Joel Erdmannstated. “The home portion of the schedule brings a type and level of college football experience to Mobile that has not been here before. Each opponent provides a unique attractiveness to that particular game. Adding even more intrigue is the continued development of our program against quality opponents both at home and on the road, as we will once again be facing multiple programs that have participated in a bowl game the last couple years.”
“Our crowds have continued to ‘mature’ and grow traditions, tailgating a certain way, cheering a certain way in various situations and ultimately creating a home field advantage which is vital to our program’s success. This year’s schedule brings a great opportunity for our loyal fans to renew their season tickets and to bring new people into the Jaguar Nation.”
“We are excited by the types of teams we are playing, obviously it will be very challenging. It’s probably the most challenging schedule we have played to date,” head coach Joey Jones said. “It’s a very challenging schedule, but it’s one that when our players look at it they get excited.”
“A lot of schools play four non-conference teams early in their schedule,” Jones stated. “I like the fact that Navy is at the end of ours.”
“We are going to have to watch how we practice and monitor our players,” Jones said about having five straight games before an off date. “We’re playing all Division I teams with some road games in that stretch, so we are going to have to be smart about how we handle these young men during the season. We have a lot of seniors who will be mentally tough enough to handle this, but we have to make sure that we do things and make decisions throughout the season where we are not wearing our players out.”
“I see Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette, Arkansas State and Texas State all in a row, that’s a tough road right there,” Jones continued. “But, it’s exciting to have Georgia Southern, a team that beat Florida last year, for our opening home conference game, there should be a lot of buzz around that game. Then we go to Idaho and Appalachian State which is two long trips in a row. I don’t know that you can ever design a schedule that is going to be perfect, so the bottom line is we are going to have to get ready each week to win ball games. That’s the mindset that we are going to have.”
Of the 12 teams on the schedule this season, five of them played in bowl games last season with each of them winning their game. Eight of the 12 teams had a winning season last year as well.
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.
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!
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.