JONESBORO, Ark. ? Another road contest, another win in Sun Belt Conference action for the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team.
DeAndré Coleman posted his fourth double-double of the year with 16 points and a season-best 15 rebounds Saturday to help lead the Jaguars to their fourth league victory away from home in as many tries as they defeated Arkansas State 74-67 at the Convocation Center.
The Jags (11-7, 4-3 Sun Belt) broke open a tie game early in the second half with a 16-1 run, then held on down the stretch for their fifth win in a row over the Indians (12-6, 4-3 SBC). Brandon Davis ? who scored eight of his 10 points after the break ? started the spurt with a layup at 18:59, doubling USA’s advantage 19 seconds later with a steal at midcourt that he took the rest of the way for a dunk.
Ronald Douglas sandwiched a layup and a dunk around a Coleman basket, and when Domonic Tilford drove for a layup to put the Jaguars up 44-33 with 14:48 it forced ASU to call a time-out. After the break, Coleman converted four free throws 36 seconds apart to push the advantage to 48-33 with 13:21 left.
The Jags would connect on seven of their first 10 attempts from the field in the second half, going on to outshoot the Red Wolves 55.2-37.5 percent over the final 20 minutes.
Coleman finished 8-of-10 at the free-throw line, as the Jaguars would visit the stripe a season-high 34 times (making 21). It was his highest point total since scoring 19 in the championship game of the USA Basketball Classic against UC Davis on Nov. 29, while it was the most boards he has pulled down since collecting a career-best 18 in a Dec. 20 victory over Troy last year.
Tilford would pace all scorers with 20 points, his seventh outing this season with 20 or more points. That included scoring seven straight USA points midway through the second half as ASU tried to mount a rally ? his three from 25 feet as the shot clock expired, which provided the last of those points, pushed the Jag advantage back into double figures, 66-56, with two-and-a-half minutes remaining.
He was 3-of-6 from beyond the three-point arc for the game, and he also posted four assists against just one turnover in 39 minutes.
After the Red Wolves drew within seven points with 74 seconds to go, Coleman made a pair of foul shots. C.J. Garner followed with two more free throws 13 seconds later to make the USA edge double digits again although ASU would close to within seven twice in the final 16 seconds on layups from Daniel Bryant.
LaShun Watson contributed 11 points ? going 5-of-8 from the floor ? seven rebounds, two assists and a career-high-tying two steals as well for the Jaguars.
USA, which shot 44.6 percent from the field overall, also finished with a 43-37 advantage on the boards as Davis and Garner supplied five each ? it was a career-high figure for the latter ? and Philip Tabet chipped in with four.
And, although the Jags committed four more miscues than the Red Wolves (17-13), they outscored ASU 24-15 in points off turnovers. USA allowed just a 36.8 field-goal percentage which included a 3-of-13 performance guarding the three-point arc over the final 20 minutes two nights after Troy sank 16 total treys in a 24-point win over the Jags.
“I think the fans got to see a very good, physical Sun Belt game. That was a war out there,” Jaguar head coach Ronnie Arrow stated. “It was two good defensive teams going at one another, and we’re very happy to pick up this win and go on back to Mobile.”
USA put together the game’s first run late in the opening half, holding the Red Wolves without a field goal over a six-minute and 14-second stretch while outscoring ASU 9-1 to build a 26-20 advantage with just over two minutes to go. Coleman scored four points on two free throws and a layup while Tilford connected on the Jags’ only three of the half from the top of the key.
ASU would tied the game at 28 in the final half-minute following two foul shots from Jeremy Thomas, but Watson ? who led USA with seven points before the break ? banked in a long jump shot at the buzzer as the Jaguars took a two-point advantage to the locker room.
Both teams shot 36 percent or less prior to the intermission. In fact, each had just one field goal at the first media time-out. The Red Wolves led by as many as four points early, 8-4, when an Eric McKinney basket with 14-and-a-half minutes remaining allowed ASU to double up the Jaguars. The game would be tied on four occasions before two Tilford free throws with just under 10 minutes to go put USA ahead 17-16.
Donald Boone led the Red Wolves with 17 points, but he hit just 6-of-17 from the floor including only 1-of-6 three-point attempts. JeJuan Brown supplied ASU with 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench while Bryant finished with 11 points and six assists. Shawn Morgan paced the team with nine boards.
USA is next in action when UALR ? which leads the Sun Belt’s West Division by two games with a 6-1 mark in league play ? visits the Mitchell Center at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.
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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