MOBILE, Ala. - The University of South Alabama men’s basketball team posted an 83-64 victory over Louisiana-Monroe on Tuesday night at the Mitchell Center to move to 8-1 on the year, while ULM falls to 4-7. With the victory, USA pushes its winning streak to seven games, the longest since the 1999-2000 season.
"Tonight was good, we got to play some guys extended minutes and give them some confidence," Jaguar head coach John Pelphrey said.
The game opened with the Jaguars building a quick 9-2 lead through the first three minutes of the game on a pair of layups by senior Mario Jointer and a layup by junior Jason McGriff.
ULM then went on a 7-2 run of its own to make the score 11-9 with 14:01 to play, but USA came right back with a 10-2 run to go up 23-11 with 11:07 to play.
The Jags built the lead to as many as 18 points in the closing minutes of the half, before settling for a 41-23 lead at the break.
USA's senior Richard Law was the leading scorer for the game at halftime with 12 points on four-of-six from the field and two-of-four from beyond the arc. He was two-of-two from the line with four rebounds. ULM's Adrian Harper and Drew Meyerchick each had seven points to pace the Indians.
USA shot 45.5 percent from the floor on 15-of-33. The Jags were 6-of-20 from the 3-point line and a perfect 5-of-5 from the line. ULM shot 42.3 percent on 11-of-26, but were just 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and 1-of-2 from the line. Each team had 17 rebounds, but ULM committed 13 turnovers in the opening half compared to USA's six.
The Jaguars built the lead to 24 points through the first nine minutes of the second half, 56-32. ULM continued to fight hard, but was without two of its top scorers in Cecil Hood and RoShon Jacobs. Both had good games against the Jaguars last week.
The Indians cut the deficit to 18 points with 10:07 to play, but a 3-pointer by senior Jeffrey Collins moments later put the Jaguars back up 21 and the team was able to keep lead right around the 19-23 point range the rest of the way.
For the game, USA was 27-of-62 from the field for 43.5 percent. ULM was 26-of-53 for 49.1 percent. USA made 10 3-pointers (10-32) while ULM was 9-of-19. USA went to the line 27 times, making 19 compared to ULM going to the charity stripe just eight times, making three. The Indians also committed 26 turnovers to USA's 10.
"We would like to have shot better, Pelphrey said. "Our defense slipped in the second half. We allowed too many 3-point looks, but that's to be expected when you have some guys in there that are not used to playing those kinds of minutes."
For the first time this season, each of the 11 Jaguars saw double-digit minutes.
Law and sophomore Demetric Bennett each scored a team-high 12 points. Bennett has come off the bench in the past four games and scored double figures in each game. McGriff chipped in 10 points. ULM's Meyerchick had a game-high 13 points, followed by 12 from Tony Hooper and Harper.
The Jaguars had season-highs in both blocks (6) and steals (16). McGriff had a career-high four rejections and Jointer had a game-high five steals.
USA returns to the road for its fourth game in eight days at Alabama State on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Jaguars defeated Alabama State on Nov. 25 in the Mitchell Center, 82-65. The Jaguars will then have nine days off before hosting Western Michigan on Dec. 30 at 8:05 p.m. to complete the 2005 portion of the schedule.
