Box Score (html)
Box Score (pdf)
Photo Gallery

MOBILE, Ala. – LSU’s men’s basketball team hit 12 3-pointers on just 17 attempts and a 25-point halftime lead was too much for the University of South Alabama to overcome as the Tigers held on to win the Coors Classic 80-65 Sunday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The 12th Annual Coors Classic was hosted by the GoDaddy.com Bowl. LSU improves to 4-2 while South Alabama drops to 2-3.

LSU’s Andre Stringer earned MVP honors with a game-high 21 points. He hit four 3-pointers and added three assists, two steals and one block.

“They came out shooting the ball, but our game plan was not to let those shooters be able to breathe out there,” said USA head coach Ronnie Arrow. “Our guys just let them catch and shoot. Once you let shooters hit a couple they get their juices flowing and I think that’s what happened early. Everything they threw up seemed like it was going in.”

The Tigers’ trio of Stringer, Aaron Dotson and Ralston Turner did all of the 3-point shooting before halftime and combined for 42 of the team’s 48 points. Stringer hit 4-of-5 from long distance for 16 points while Dotson made all five from beyond the arc for 14 points at the break.

LSU raced out to a 15-4 lead in the opening moments, and after USA cut the deficit to 20-13, went on a 16-3 burst for a 20-point cushion.

As a team LSU shot 66.7 percent (16-24) from the floor and 76.9 percent (10-13) from 3-point land and held a 48-23 advantage at halftime.

While the Tigers were deadly from beyond the arc in the first half, the Jaguars suffered a drought, missing all six attempts from downtown, and did not make a field goal in the final 5:46.

LSU’s largest lead of the game was 28 points at the 15:10 mark of the second half. The Tigers’ shooting went cold, allowing the Jags to slowly get back in the game. A 3-pointer from senior Tim Williams (Pontiac, Mich.) with 2:50 left in the contest capped off a 15-5 USA rally to get within 13, the closest deficit since midway through the first half. But South Alabama made just one field goal the rest of the way and would get no closer than 12 points.

“I was glad to see our guys come back,” said Arrow. “We could’ve just really, really folded. We started doing some things that we worked on, like penetrating and hitting the open man and we were making shots early. It has just seemed like it’s all or nothing.”

The Jaguars nearly doubled their first-half output with 42 second-half points, thanks to 6-for-10 shooting from 3-point territory after halftime. Junior P.J. Reyes (Taylor, Mich.) set a new career high with 12 points, all in the second half, on 3-for-4 shooting from distance. Sophomore Martino Brock (Memphis, Tenn.) led the Jaguars with 15 points.

LSU’s Turner finished with 17 points and Dotson tallied 15.

South Alabama starts a two-game road trip Wednesday evening at Alabama. Start time is 7:30 p.m.

NOTES: The Jaguars had won their previous two games against SEC schools and fall to 11-36 all-time vs. current league members… USA had scored at least 80 points in its first two home games… Williams was held to nine points, nine below his season average coming into the game (18.0 ppg)… The Jaguars committed a season-low nine turnovers… Brock is averaging 15.0 points in three games against SEC teams… Redshirt freshman Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas), the fifth-leading rebounder in the Sun Belt Conference, was held to three offensive boards for the contest and finished with nine points.

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).

—USA—