South Alabama (4-2) fell behind 3-0 in the first two minutes, but rattled off 10 straight points in less than two minutes to take the lead for good. After McDowell hit his second three for the Mocs, the Jaguars turned in an 11-0 run to open a 21-6 margin with 14:02 remaining in the first half. Merritt had six points in the run, while Bennett and Tilford each hit jumpers for the other five points.

Chattanooga, who used a late 18-2 run Friday in a come-from-behind victory over UC-Irvine, closed to within eight, 41-33 with 3:08 left, but South Alabama ended the half on an 8-0 run to lead by 16, 49-33 at the break. The second half started with the surge continuing to 13 points as the Jaguars tallied five straight points.

South Alabama never let up, pushing the margin to 30, 67-37, on an Bennett free throw with 13:05 to play. Chattanooga scored the last eight points of the game to make the final difference of 17 the closest of the period.

"I thought we played very well as a team tonight, both offensively and defensively," Head Coach Ronnie Arrow said. "We held a good shooting team to 40 percent and we had 22 assists. That shows a lot of unselfishness on the part of the team. They were averaging 81 points coming in and we held them to 67. I think we are finally buying to a team effort and doing the things we needed to do."

Tilford agreed. "We can out focused tonight with everyone on the same page. We ran the offense and that got everyone good shots. (Defensively), we tried something new , trapping ball screens and everyone did what they needed to do. I was a good effort."

After its sizzling first half, South Alabama cooled to just 34.6 percent shooting after intermission, but still equalled the season high for shooting percentage (50.0/26-52). The Jaguars hit 11 of 25 threes and 21 of 27 at the free throw line. They also held a 36-31 advantage on the boards.