Exhibition • South Alabama Jaguars at Spring Hill Badgers
October 24, 2017 • 7:30 p.m. • Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center (1,600) • Mobile, Ala.

THE COACHES
South Alabama
Matthew Graves (Butler, 1998)
Record at USA: 51-78 (5th year)
Overall Record: Same

Spring Hill
Aaron Niven (Arkansas, 1998)
Record at SHC: 36-77 (5th year)
Overall Record: Same

LAST GAME
South Alabama gave up a 23-5 run to end the first half in an 80-67 loss to Coastal Carolina in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament. Spring Hill defeated Lane 64-60 to complete its 2016-17 campaign.

NEXT GAME
The Jaguars host North Alabama in an exhibition on Nov. 3 at 7:35 p.m. The face Samford on Nov. 5 in an exhibition.

ON THE AIR
On the web: None
Live stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/shc/mbball/

RANKINGS (Through end of 2016-17 season)
USA: #229 RPI, #243 Sagarin
SHC: N/A

THE SERIES
USA leads 20-3.

Current streak: USA, 15 wins
Last meeting: USA 71, Spring Hill 50 (12/19/16)
SHC's last win: 56-53 (2/28/72)
USA's last win at Spring Hill: 66-61 (2/14/73)
SHC's last win at Spring Hill: 78-77 (1/20/70)
USA's record at Spring Hill: 2-2
USA's road streak: Won 2
USA's longest winning / losing streak in series: 15 / 2
Notes: The two schools have played at South Alabama 20 times in 23 meetings… After playing in every season from 1968-1974 and in 1976-77 and 1977-78, the two teams didn't play for almost 16 years until Jan. 24, 2004… The Jags and Badgers met in an exhibition game prior to the 2007-08 (82-62 USA win), 2011-12 (88-64 USA win) and 2012-13 seasons (73-40 USA win).

OPENING TIP
All proceeds from Tuesday's game will go to Catholic Relief Charities to benefit victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Nate and Irma.

Tuesday will mark the fourth time in the last 11 seasons that the two schools have met in an exhibition contest. South Alabama won the previous three, all by at least 20 points.

South Alabama has not visited Spring Hill in the regular season since Feb. 14, 1973.

USA's current 15-game win streak is its longest active streak over any opponent.

The Jaguars lose five of its top six scorers from last season, who accounted for 67.6 percent of South Alabama's scoring.

Sophomore Josh Ajayi led the team in rebounding last year (5.4 rpg) and is the team's top returning scorer (10.6 ppg).

In an 11-game stretch (all starts) during conference play, Trhae Mitchell averaged 7.1 points and 3.8 rebounds, and shot 70.5 percent from the floor and 77.8 percent from behind the 3-point line.

Last season, South Alabama led the league in turnover margin (+3.16), steals (7.5 spg) and turnovers forced (16.3 pg) and were 15th in turnovers forced, 20th in turnover margin and 44th in steals in the nation.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MATTHEW GRAVES
On his overall thoughts on the game
"I'm really excited about playing outside competition. We get the chance to put on the uniform – albeit the road one – and have officials and fans, so we can see how different guys are going to respond to that environment. I'm really looking forward to it."
 
On what he wants to get out of the game
"I want to see how hard we compete. We certainly have a lot more things to install both offensively and defensively. We're through 21 practices and I want to see if we can take what we've done in practice and apply it to a game situation without losing our minds. If we can do that, then I'll feel a lot better."

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).

Join the Jaguar Athletic Fund (JAF) Priority Fund, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to the Priority Fund directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/priorityfund

—USA—