HOUSTON ? The South Alabama Jaguars won their 20th game of the season and extended their winning streak to 13 games with a hard-fought 66-61 win at Houston on Tuesday night. Senior Carlos Smith had a team-high 15 points for the Jaguars (20-7, 13-2 SBC). Houston (13-11) was led by 19 points from Jahmar Thorpe and Robert McKiver.
The game started at a torrid pace as each team shot 50 percent or better for the first seven minutes. Junior Demetric Bennett and senior Carlos Smith each had five for the Jaguars and Jahmar Thorpe had eight for the Cougars. The Jags made three of their first four 3-pointers.
The Jaguars then opened a 24-20 lead with the help of three consecutive field goals by sophomore Brandon Davis with 8:19 to play in the half. A pair of buckets by Tafari Toney put the Cougars back in front 26-24 with six to play in the half. Senior Stephen Cowherd hit a 3-pointer to put the Jaguars up 31-26 moments later followed by another 3-pointer by senior Leandro Buboltz for a 33-26 score with under three left in the half.
USA held a 37-34 lead heading into the half.
For the half, USA shot 45.2 percent on 14 of 31 from the floor. The Jags had eight first half 3-pointers for 72.7 percent and were just 1 of 4 from the line. Smith and Davis led the way with eight points each. Davis was 4 of 5 from the field in the first half.
Houston shot 48.3 percent from the floor on 14 of 29. The Cougars were 4 of 14 from beyond the arc and 2 of 3 from the line. McKiver led the way with 13 points, including three 3-pointers and Thorpe had 10 points.
Marcus Malone hit two big 3-pointers through the first four minutes of the second half to give the Cougars’ the lead, but a big put back dunk by junior Ernest Little tied the game at 45 with 15:13 left. It was Little’s first field goal of the game. Four of the first five made field goals for the Cougars in the second half were 3-pointers.
A bucket by Buboltz ended a three minute scoring drought by the Jaguars and put the Jags back up 51-50 with just under eight minutes to go. Little made two free throws to put the Jags back up 53-52 with 6:30 left.
McKiver hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game to put the Cougars back in front, but the lead was short lived as Little hit his 11th point of the half with a turnaround jumper in the lane to silence the crowd and tie the game at 57 with 3:28 left.
A 3-pointer by Smith put USA up three with under three minutes left at 60-57. It was the Jags’ first made 3-pointer in the second half and ninth overall. USA had missed its first five 3-pointers in the half. Two free throws by Merritt pushed the lead to five with 1:41 left.
Houston had two great looks at the bucket as McKiver missed a 3-pointer and Thorpe missed the shot off the offensive rebound. USA rebounded the miss and cleared out as Bennett was fouled and hit two free throws to go up six with 20 seconds left. Thorpe hit a trey to cut it back to three with nine seconds left.
After a Houston timeout, Smith was fouled in the backcourt and went to the line for two where he made both to make the score 66-61 with 6.8 seconds left. The Cougars threw up a desperation heave to no avail.
For the game, USA shot 41.5 percent on 22 of 53 from the field. USA made nine 3-pointers ad went 13 of 17 from the free throw line and 12 of 13 in the second half. Smith was 5 of 8 from the field and 3 of 5 from beyond the arc. Little had 11 points in the second half and nine rebounds, while Davis had 12 points.
The Jags are now one win away from tying the school record with 14 wins in a row set in 1980-81 and have back-to-back 20 win seasons for the first time since 2001.
The Jaguars will continue on the road at Florida International on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. central time and at Florida Atlantic on Wed., Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. central, before returning home for the regular season finale against Troy on Sat., Feb. 24 at 7:05 p.m. in the Mitchell Center.
