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 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.
Rubit Sets New SBC Rebounding Record As Jags Fall To New Mexico State
Senior Augustine Rubit set the all-time Sun Belt Conference rebounding record against New Mexico State on Saturday night.
South Alabama’s Augustine Rubit broke the all-time rebounding record for the Sun Belt Conference, but his team lost to New Mexico State 82-64 as four Aggies scored in double-digits.
NMSU started quickly by jumping out to a 13-5 lead in the first four minutes of the game and never looked back. The Aggies got a game-high 18-points from Daniel Mullings and 65 total points from their five starting players. They shot 63.5% from the floor, the most allowed by the Jaguars this season. They shot 68% in the second half alone.
In the second half, Mychal Ammons completed a three-point play in the Jaguars first possession of the second half and cut the Aggie lead to eight, but NMSU would score 11 of the next 12 points in a stretch of 1:29 to go up by 18 points.
The Jaguars would try to fight back and would get within 10 points on three difference occasions, but the Aggies would have an answer each time.
Augustine Rubit and Antoine Allen were the only Jaguars to score in double-digits with 11 and 10 points respectively. Rubit finished with a team-high six rebounds. Freshman Aakim Saintil added nine points, seven of them after halftime, and had four assists.
“I think it’s an unbelievable individual achievement. To be the leading rebounder in a conference’s history really says something about how great of a rebounder he is,” Jaguar head coach Matthew Graves said after the game. “I know he’s disappointed about his game tonight but with the way he rebounds the basketball, he’s going to have better games than this.”
“I thought we started off the game very timid, for whatever reason,” Graves explained. “We weren’t very assertive and attacking. We missed a wide open ‘3’ early, Augustine went 0-for-3 at the free-throw line and we allowed our lack of production on the offensive end on the floor to affect how we guarded. There were stretches where New Mexico State was trying to allow us an opportunity to get back in the game a few times and we didn’t take advantage of it. Ultimately when you allow a team to shoot 63.5 percent from the flield, you’re not going to win those type of games.”
“Certainly they’re talented and I don’t want to take anything away from them but at some point, you’ve got to have enough pride in guarding your own man and deciding enough’s enough when you continue to get scored on and not allow it to happen again,” Graves said. “It was tied to how bad we were playing offensively and we really let that dictate our energy and effort on the defensive end of the floor.”
“If we’re wanting to win championships, and that’s what we want this program to be about, we’ve got to focus more on the defensive end. For the most part this year we’ve done a good job defensively, but tonight was a very bad outing for us.”
Saintil earned his first career start while Jaguar point guards combined for seven assists and no turnovers. The team’s six turnover were a season low, but the Jags 24 rebounds and -14 rebounding margin were also season lows for the game.
USA hopes that their tough road non-conference schedule this season will pay dividends during conference play. The Jags will open conference play at home when they host rival Western Kentucky on Thursday evening with tipoff scheduled for 5:05 PM at the Mitchell Center.
Rubit Named SBC Player Of The Week
Augustine Rubit was named the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for his career performance against Gonzaga. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
Senior Augustine Rubit, coming off of a career performance against #16 ranked Gonzaga on Saturday, was named the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the sixth time in his career.
He set a new career high with 35 points with 23 coming in the second half alone. He was 11-for-16 from the floor and made all three of this three-point attempts and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line.
His three 3-pointers were also a new personal best as the 35 points ties for the most by a Sun Belt player so far this season. It is his first 30+ point game of the season and the sixth of his career.
He also earned the national player of the week honor from StatSheet.com with his performance against the Bulldogs.
Rubit has been named the Player of the Week more than any other USA player.
USA Has 10 Players Honored By Conference, Coach Jones Selected Coach Of The Year
Ten Jaguars were named to the All-Sun Belt football team today including head coach Joey Jones being named Sun Belt Coach of the Year.
First team selections were: tight end Wex Saxton, offensive lineman Chris May, defensive end Alex Page and defensive lineman Romelle Jones. Second team selection: quarterback Ross Metheny, wide receiver Shavarez Smith, offensive lineman Ucambre Williams and linebacker Enrique Williams.
Honorable mention honors went to placekicker Aleem Sunanon and running back Jay Jones.
South Alabama was chosen to finish seventh out of eight teams in the preseason coaches poll. Coach Jones led the Jaguars to a bowl-eligible 6-6 season and 4-3 record in conference play, including three consecutive wins to end the season. Through five seasons at the helm at USA, a program he started, Jones is 31-21.
Western Kentucky’s Antonio Andrews was named Player of the Year for the conference as well as Offensive Player of the Year. Defensive Player of the Year went to Xavius Boyd also from Western Kentucky. Louisiana-Lafayette’s Elijah McGuire was named Freshman of the Year.
Arkansas State led the conference with 12 players being named to either the first or second team list. ULL and Troy both had nine and South Alabama had eight. WKU, who won the player, offensive and defensive players of the year honors, had seven players on the two teams. ULM had six and newcomers Georgia State and Texas State both had two representatives on the two teams.
Saxton, a 6’4″ 240-pound junior from Hueytown caught 50 passes to tie for the team lead and gained 635 yards on the season.
Page, a 6’1″ 235-pound senior from Prattville had 51 tackles with 14 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks, both best on the team.
Romelle Jones, a 6’2″ 270-pound senior from New Orleans had 42 tackles with 13.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.
Metheny, a 6’3″ 205-pound senior and the conference leader in total offense, threw for 2,622 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also rushed for 604 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Smith, a 6’1″ 200-pound junior from McDonough, GA, caught 50 passes to tie for the team lead and gained 940 yards with six touchdowns.
Enrique Williams, a 6′ 235-pound senior from Mobile led USA in total tackles with 105 with 7.5 of them being for a loss.
Sunanon, a 5’7″ 185-pound redshirt freshman from Orlando went 18-of-23 handling the placekicking duties this season, including setting a new school record with 12-consecutive to end the season. His 91 points was the most on the team.
Jay Jones, a 5’9″ 190-pound junior from Horn Lake, MS. led the Jaguar rushing attack with 737 yards with five touchdowns.
Arkansas State’s Harsin Accepts HC Position At Boise State
Arkansas State will be playing in the GoDaddy Bowl for the third consecutive season and also for the third consecutive season they have lost their head football coach to another program.
Former Red Wolves head coach Bryan Harsin has accepted the offer to become the head football coach at Boise State, the position that came open when Chris Peterson left for the head coaching position at Washington State. The announcement was made Wednesday morning.
Harsin when 7-5 last season in his first season as a head coach with the Red Wolves. He is returning to a familiar place as he was quarterback for the Broncos from 1995-1999. He began his coaching career at Eastern Oregon University where he coached running backs and quarterbacks in 2000. In 2001 he returned to Boise State as a graduate assistant. In 2002 he was hired as tight ends coach and stayed in that position until 2005 until he was promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2006, in which he guided the offense to an undefeated season. In 2008 he guided freshman Kellen Moore to the WAC freshman of the year while setting freshman records for completion percentage with 69.4%. He had a 61-5 record as offensive coordinator with the Broncos with two Fiesta Bowl victories over Oklahoma and TCU.
In 2011 Harsin joined Mack Brown’s staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach with Major Applewhite as his co-offensive coordinator. He accepted the head coaching position with Arkansas State after the 2012 season.
Arkansas State lost first year head coach Gus Malzahn to the head coaching position at Auburn University last year. Prior to that, they lost their first year head coach, Hugh Freeze, to Ole Miss in 2011.
USA’s Allison, Oram, Hernandez Are Part Of 10 SBC Players Selected For All-South Region Team
The University of South Alabama Women’s Soccer team pose after wining their first-ever Sun Belt Conference Championship by defeating Western Kentucky 1-0 on Sunday in San Marcos, Texas. | sunbeltsports.org
Ten Sun Belt Conference women’s soccer players were selected for the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA All-South Region team as announced by the NSCAA office.
Highlighting the list was Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player and Freshman of the Year Lauren Allison. She led the conference in points, points per game, goals, goals per game, assists, assists per game and game-winning goals. She and teammate Jessica Oram were both selected to the All-South Region First Team.
Jaguars Clarrisa Hernandez was selected to the second team.
Along with the three Jaguars, UL-Lafayette’s Grace Howell-Harries, who was selected SBC Defensive Player of the Year, was selected to the second team and Annika Schmidt was selected to the third team.
Troy freshman Necee Jennings was selected to the Third Team. WKU’s Nora Abolins, Chrissy Tchoula and Iris Dunn were all selected to the Second Team with Chandler Clark being selected to the Third Team.
Allison, Dunn, Jennings and Schmidt are all freshman and are just four of several players returning who will be impact players for the 2014 season. Additionally, each of the four returning players are ranked in the top ten in goals scored this season.
Howell-Harries is a junior and will also return for the 2014 season.
Sun Belt soccer looks to be a very exciting season.