MOBILE, Ala. ? The University of South Alabama men’s basketball team shot a season-high 67.3% from the floor and never trailed in a 91-70 win over Florida Atlantic Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.

USA’s fourth straight home victory takes them to 15-11 overall and 8-7 in the Sun Belt Conference. FAU drops to 6-21 and 2-13.

The win is the first double-digit game the Jaguars have played since Jan. 15 at Troy.

“We’ve been in a lot of games that we could have put some people away, and we didn’t,” said USA head coach Ronnie Arrow. “I thought tonight that we went ahead and put them away. We shared the ball really well tonight. Twenty-six assists is super. We executed our plays and in transition. When we took the lead early, our defense got steals, layups and deflections. We played with a lot of energy to start the game.”

The contest was a battle between two of the top three scorers in the Sun Belt: USA senior Domonic Tilford (Louisville, Ky.) and FAU senior Paul Graham III. The pair combined for 44 points, including a game-high 27 by Graham.

The Jags took control midway through the first half, exploding for a 15-3 run while making all six field goal attempts. Senior Brandon Davis (Birmingham, Ala.) jump-started the rally with a dunk and five different players contributed to the scorefest.

Tilford scored 15 of his 17 in the first half and shot 5-for-6 from the floor and made all three 3-point attempts in the opening 20 minutes.

“Whenever your outside guys are scoring outside, it loosens it up inside,” said Arrow. “I thought that our guards did a good job of getting the ball inside to our guys. Tonight our inside guys did a good job of taking it to the rack and taking quick shots. Coleman got a couple of jump hooks in there. Brandon got a couple of one-on-ones on the baseline, and finished. They’re doing the things that we work on. Tonight, we did the things that we work on to get a lead and keep the lead.”

South Alabama made 16 of their first 21 shots from the floor and finished the first half with a 73.4 percentage, the highest by the team this season.

The Owls cut a 21-point lead down to 10 with 4:48 left in the game, but the Jaguars answered with an 8-0 run, thanks to six straight points by Davis.

Davis finished with a team-best 23 points. He shot 9-for-10 from the field and blocked two shots.

Three other USA players joined Davis and Tilford in double-digits. Juniors LaShun Watson (Greenville, Ga.) and Bryan Sherrer (Monticello, Ark.) had 12 and 11, respectively, and freshman C.J. Garner (Silver Spring, Md.) totaled 10.

Shavar Richardson came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points for FAU.

The Jaguars go back out on the road for their next game, traveling to Middle Tennessee for a Thursday night tilt at 7 p.m.

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).

NOTES: South Alabama tallied a season-high 26 assists and both Watson and senior DeAndré Coleman (Stone Mountain, Ga.) set new personal bests with seven each... Davis moved in to eighth place all-time at USA in career rebounds with 532... Senior Ronald Douglas (Baton Rouge, La.) extended his streak of 10 straight games with a block... The 91 points scored are the third-highest this season and the Jags’ most since totaling 93 vs. Houston Baptist on Dec. 7.

?USA?