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MOBILE, Ala. – Middle Tennessee held the University of South Alabama to 37 percent shooting for the game and kept the Jaguars off the scoreboard in the final 1:41 to win 60-56 Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.

The Blue Raiders improve to 12-4 overall and claim the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference East Division at 4-1. The Jaguars drop to 7-7 and 4-2.

MTSU used a 17-3 run at the end of the first half and beginning of the second to lead by as many as 15 in the second half and was up 11 with 3:57 to play before USA rallied to pull within two in the final two minutes.

“When you play a team that good, a unanimous pick to win your league, you have to play 40 minutes and we got 35,” said interim USA head coach Jeff Price. “You can’t play 35 with these guys, you have to play 40. You can’t compound mistakes with mistakes. I thought we made a couple of mistakes and got our head down and missed a couple of layups when we didn’t need to. We got down and we could have laid down and quit but we didn’t; we fought and we had our chances.”

USA sophomore Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) led all scorers with 15 points off the bench and added eight rebounds. Junior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) extended his double-double streak to a career-long six games with 10 points and a game-high 14 boards.

Down 27-23 with 1:22 left in the first half, Middle Tennessee outscored South Alabama 6-1 to end the period, including a steal-and-layup from JT Sulton with 14 seconds left.

The momentum continued to start the second half as the Blue Raiders opened on an 11-2 spurt, including nine unanswered over a 3:36 span to take their biggest lead of the contest, 40-30.

“That was the key to the whole game,” Price said of the first five minutes of the second half. “We didn’t play the last minute of the last first half well either. We were up by maybe three and then we had a turnover and that last half court turnover and kind of broke our momentum a little bit. We went in down one; instead we should have been up. And the first four minutes of the second half, you always tell your guys (about) the first five minutes and they just have to buy in. You can’t put your head down against a team this good, you just have to keep battling. Sometimes we just got a little mentally weak and we can’t do that.”

The lead expanded to 15 midway through the second half after an 8-0 MTSU run, helped by a stretch of almost five minutes without a USA field goal, including five missed layups.

“We just missed so many easy shots around the basket for a stretch there that would normally go in,” Price said. “For about four minutes it was like Arkansas State when layups wouldn’t go in by very good players. I mean Aug and Mike were missing them.”

The Jaguars started their comeback attempt in the final four minutes down 11 points. Senior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) started the rally with a tip-in and blocked a shot at the other end. Rubit made two free throws and senior Freddie Goldstein (Milwaukee, Wis.) followed with a 3-pointer to cut the margin down to 58-54.

South Alabama’s defense forced a miss at its end and junior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) went almost the length of the floor for a layup at the 1:41 mark to pull within two, but the Middle Tennessee defense stiffened after that, forcing three missed shots and held the Jags scoreless. Rubit missed a layup with 56 seconds left, and after two Blue Raider free throws, a 3-point attempt from Ammons was off the mark. A last-second attempt from Allen was blocked.

“I’m so impressed with how South Alabama has competed; it’s shown up on all the tapes,” MTSU head coach Kermit Davis said. “It looked like we’d built a good lead, but, against an experienced team, I have to give them credit; they were physical and made a bunch of plays. We were lucky to hang on there at the end.”

Bruce Massey paced the Blue Raiders with 12 points and Shawn Jones was the only other player in double-figures with 11. Kerry Hammonds and Marcos Knight each grabbed seven rebounds.

Goldstein tallied 12 points and dished out a team-best four assists. Carter added 10 points and seven rebounds.

South Alabama travels to Louisiana at Lafayette Thursday for a 7 p.m. tilt.

NOTES: Middle Tennessee has won the last four games in the series – the previous three were by 16 points or more… Rubit’s 10 points are his fewest since being held to a season-low eight vs. New Mexico State on Dec. 4 – he had scored 19 or more in five straight games… Rubit moved into 12th place at USA in career scoring and third place in career rebounds – he is five boards away from second place… He reached double-digits in rebounds for the seventh consecutive game… Carter rejected two shots to extend his blocks streak to eight games… Both teams grabbed 37 rebounds… Middle Tennessee entered the contest first in the Sun Belt in scoring defense (59.5) and 3-point defense (27.1 percent)... The Jags posted a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for just the fourth time this season (12-11).

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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