MOBILE, Ala. --- Owners of a 3-2 record but coming off a loss Saturday, the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team returns home to host the Second Annual USA Thanksgiving Tournament

South Alabama welcomes three teams to Mobile for the tournament: Alcorn State of the SWAC, Utah Valley (independent) and Georgia State (Colonial Athletic Association). GSU and UVU will open play Wednesday at 5 p.m. followed by USA and ASU at 7:05 p.m.

“I know that Dick Hunsaker of Utah Valley and Rod Barnes of Georgia State are both good coaches,” said USA head coach Ronnie Arrow. “They’ll have their teams disciplined and that should be a good game.”

 The Jaguars fell to 0-2 in true road games Saturday with an 84-62 loss at Tulsa, but are 1-0 at the Mitchell Center, where this week’s games will take place.

 “We have not beaten a team on their home floor yet, which shows that we haven’t learned how to win on the road,” said Arrow. “We’ve won on a neutral floor and at home but a mature team is able to go on the road and win. We weren’t able to win at Rice or Tulsa. That comes with maturity and maturity comes with experience. But now we come home. Yesterday we worked on rebounding and today we’ll get more intense on defense and rebounding, which has been a sore spot for us. I’m hoping our guys will know what we can do. Just because a team is bigger, doesn’t mean we can’t beat them. This bunch needs to figure out how to do that. We did it against Tulsa for 16 minutes. This isn’t like football where you have to wait a week to see where you’re at. We’ll be able to see tomorrow if the rebounding situation has improved.”

Tulsa won the battle of the boards 53-29 – the first team to do so against the Jags this season – and went on a 12-0 run late in the first half to take control of the game.

Alcorn State is 0-6 and gives up an average of 94.8 points per game, but has two players that score in double figures: Jonathan Boyd (11.8 ppg) and JaMarkus Holt (11.7).

“They have good shooters and quickness; they’re not real big,” said Arrow. “We have to guard the 3-point line and stop them from pushing the ball and getting easy points in transition. They like to score in transition and they like to shoot the ‘3.’”

Junior Tim Williams tops the USA scoring and rebounding charts and 14.2 ppg and 8.2 rpg, respectively. He led the team with 17 points vs. Tulsa and recorded a double-double against Spring Hill with 13 points and 11 boards. His rebounding average is second in the Sun Belt Conference.

“We brought Tim in to be one of our top players, if not the top player,” said Arrow. “He’s not shooting the ball real well right now, only 16 percent from the ‘3’ and 37 percent from the floor, but he’s rebounding well. We’ve got to get him taking good shots. He takes three to five bad shots a game which is going to bring your shooting percentage down. He needs to know when he’s open and when he’s not open because we’re going to put the ball in his hands enough to score. This is only his sixth Division I game coming up. All the players need to learn that, unlike in high school or junior college, they need to come ready to play every night. Hopefully he’s learning that and he can become the player he can be.”

The South Alabama defense can hardly be blamed for the Tulsa defeat as they held the Golden Hurricane to just 38.9% shooting, marking the fourth time in five games USA’s opponent has shot less than 40.0% from the floor. Of TU’s 84 points – the most by a Jaguar opponent this season – 38 came at the foul line. The team ranks in the top four in scoring defense (66.0, 4th), field goal percentage defense (37.7, 3rd), 3-point defense (30.0, 4th) and steals (8.8, 2nd).

“Taking everything into account, our defense is the best thing we’re doing right now, and it should be – it’s what we’ve worked on the hardest. We put on the board before every game to hold the other team to 41 percent (shooting). We did that against Tulsa.”

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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