Exhibition • North Alabama Lions at South Alabama Jaguars
November 3, 2017 • 7:35 p.m. • Mitchell Center (10,000) • Mobile, Ala.

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

North Alabama
Bobby Champagne (South Alabama, 1990)
Record at UNA: 230-181 (15th year)
Overall Record: Same

LAST GAME
South Alabama outscored Spring Hill 44-23 in the second half in a 77-55 win on Oct. 25.  North Alabama ended its 2016-17 season with a 115-94 defeat to Valdosta State in the opening round of the Gulf South Conference Tournament.

NEXT GAME
The Jaguars officially open their season next Friday at Texas Tech at 8 p.m. The Lions go to Tampa on Nov. 11.

ON THE AIR
Radio: 99.5 FM The Jag; J.D. Byars (pxp)
On the web: 995thejag.com/listen (audio); JagNationTV (video)

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

THE SERIES
USA leads 1-0.

Current winning streak: South Alabama, 1 win
UNA's last win in series: N/A
Last meeting: South Alabama 96, North Alabama 78 (12/19/74)
USA's record at home: 1-0
USA's record in the Mitchell Center: N/A
USA's longest winning / losing streak in series: 1 / 0

Notes: The only meeting between the two schools came in the 1974-75 season.

OPENING TIP
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).

Ajayi accounts for 44.8 percent of the team's returning points. Ajayi scored 329 points last season, and the next highest total among the Jaguars' returnees is Herb McGee's 112.

Josh Ajayi's 329 points and 80 free throws made last year rank fifth in school history for a freshman.

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.

Rodrick Sikes, playing in his first game as a Jaguar last week at Spring Hill, led all scorers with 20 points

Dederick Lee's assist/turnover ratio of 1.92 would have ranked fourth in the Sun Belt last year, but he did not meet the minimum of 3.0 assists per game.

The Jags were plus-27 in turnover margin and averaged 9.0 steals in the last five games of the 2016-17 season.

North Alabama's Jeff Hodge is the son of South Alabama Hall of Famer Jeff Hodge, who is the program's all-time leading scorer with 2,221 points.

UNA head coach Bobby Champagne is a South Alabama graduate and lettered in the 1987-88 season.

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/give

—USA—