BOCA RATON, Fla. ? Domonic Tilford scored a game-high 27 points Thursday to help lead the University of South Alabama to a 74-69 Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball victory over Florida Atlantic at FAU Arena.
Tilford was 9-of-12 from the field, which included making 4-of-5 from three-point range, and 5-of-6 at the foul line, adding four assists and two steals as the Jaguars (9-5, 2-1 Sun Belt) never trailed in picking up their third win in a row.
He outdueled the duo of Paul Graham III and Carlos Monroe, who collected 25 and 21 points, respectively, to pace the Owls (4-10, 0-3 SBC), who dropped their fifth straight contest.
Brandon Davis was the only other player for either team to finish in double figures, collecting 11 points.
“Domonic always wants the ball,” USA head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “But, just as important, when it came down to it, he played great defense against Graham. He also kicked the ball out to open guys for good looks. We really needed his offense today and ran a lot of plays for him, and he got it done for us.”
The Jags hit 57.1 percent from the field for the game after making 60 percent in the second half, and they turned the ball over only nine times. Defensively, USA limited the Owls to 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) shooting from long distance and 46.2 percent overall from the floor.
FAU stayed in the contest by building a 31-22 rebounding advantage while also sinking 19-of-22 at the free-throw line. The Owls were charged with 11 turnovers.
Up two at the break, USA extended to as much as a five-point advantage early in the second half on a three from Tilford, which made the score 39-34 with just over 17 minutes left. The Owls countered by drawing to within one point on three occasions, the last when Monroe’s two free throws with 13:17 to go left the Jaguars up 43-42.
Tilford responded with two free throws 17 seconds later, then his steal led to a B.J. Ford basket. When he made his final trey of the game with little over 12 minutes remaining, USA was up 50-44.
After Monroe finished a three-point play that left the Jaguars ahead 52-50 at the midway point of the half, the Jags were able to push their cushion to as many as nine points when Bryan Sherrer hit a jumper from the top of the key to make the score 67-58 with 4:40 left.
It was still an eight?point advantage following a LaShun Watson basket with less than four minutes to go, but FAU scored six straight points and was trailing 69-67 with 1:21 to go after Alex Tucker drove for a layup.
Sherrer hit two free throws, and after Monroe also made two shots at the line C.J. Garner went 1-of-2 from the foul line with 30 seconds left to leave USA up 72-69. Garner sealed the win by blocking Carderro Nwoji’s three-point attempt with four seconds remaining and going on to make a layup for the final margin of victory.
“They started running a box-and-one to guard Domonic late, so we ran plays that were able to get some of our other guys open shots,” Arrow added. “C.J. really played with maturity at the end of the game, and Bryan supplied quality minutes too. The key was that we executed our offense well enough to shoot 57 percent from the floor and got important stops late.
“The bottom line is that they caught up, we fought to stay ahead and we won the game.”
Making his first career start, Garner finished with eight points, two blocks and two steals. The blocks were the first of his career, as was the three-pointer that he connected on from the left corner to open the scoring in the game 42 seconds after the opening tip.
USA finished with a 22-5 bench scoring advantage, as Sherrer chipped in with six points. Davis led the squad with seven boards, while Coleman finished with eight points and five rebounds.
Tucker accounted for all of the Owls bench scoring, adding a game-high-tying seven rebounds and game-best five assists. Graham supplied six boards and four assists, and Monroe had four rebounds as well.
Seventeen of Monroe’s points came in the second half, as he was 7-of-13 from the floor and converted all seven free-throw attempts.
The Jaguars led the entire first half, shooting 10 points higher than the Owls ? they hit 54 percent overall over the opening 20 minutes ? including convertting 4-of-7 from beyond the arc to take a 32-30 edge into the locker room. Tilford scored 12 to pace USA before the intermission.
Tilford made back to back mid-range jumpers in the opening two-and-a-half minutes to stake the Jags to a 7-2 advantage, with the lead growing to seven, 15-8, with 13-and-a-half minutes left after he sank another basket and DeAndré Coleman followed with a jump shot in the lane.
The teams traded baskets, with a Tilford trey pushing the USA edge to 22-13 with 10-and-a-half minutes remaining, and when he connected on another attempt from beyond the arc three minutes later the Jags were up 28-18.
USA’s lead was still 10, 32-22, with less than five minutes to go when Davis answered a Nwoji three-pointer with a dunk seven seconds later, but the Jaguars would miss three shots and two free-throw attempts to go scoreless the rest of the half. Graham III ? who led all players with 13 points before the break ? helped the Owls close the period on an 8-0 run with a jumper and two foul shots in the final three-and-a-half minutes.
The Jaguars are back in action Saturday when they play host to Middle Tennessee at the Mitchell Center with the start scheduled for 7:05 p.m. The contest will pit the two schools picked to finish atop the Sun Belt’s East Division at the league’s preseason Media Day event.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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