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MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men’s basketball team grabbed 54 rebounds, 25 on the offensive end, and never trailed in an 83-65 victory over Tuskegee in an exhibition game Tuesday night at the Mitchell Center.

Tuesday was USA’s final preseason contest before the season opener on Friday against Spring Hill. Tip-off will be at 7:05 p.m.

Redshirt freshman Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) grabbed 12 of those rebounds and added 15 points for a double-double. He pulled down six offensive boards, and four of sophomore Martino Brock’s (Memphis, Tenn.) eight boards also came on the offensive end.

“I think the pressure that we put on them in our traps got us a big lead,” said USA head coach Ronnie Arrow. “Twenty-five offensive rebounds is really good. Aug (Augustine) had six out of the 25, which is really good. Martino had four so that’s what this team, as athletic as it is, should have. We should be a good rebounding team and we’re going to continue to work on it.”

Senior Gary Redus (Decatur, Ala.) scored a team-high 16 points and had eight rebounds. Senior Tim Williams (Pontiac, Mich.) and sophomore Rico Sanders (College Park, Ga.) added 10 each.

The Jaguars jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the early going thanks to a pressure defense forcing turnovers. Tuskegee committed four miscues in the first 4:03 and missed four shots.

The Golden Tigers had 14 turnovers at the half and 23 for the game, which led to 28 USA points.

South Alabama struggled to take care of the ball as well, totaling 20 miscues. Each team had 13 steals.

“I thought our press was really good at the beginning and then we got the lead and we didn’t have that killer instinct,” said Arrow. “They’ve got some really good, quick guards that were tough to trap, but at the end, we didn’t take care of the ball against their press.  This is the first press we’ve seen, other than in practice so I’m glad that they ran it. We know that we’ve got to work on that now.”

The Jaguar lead stretched to as much as 17 in the first half, but just two field goals in the final nine minutes allowed the Golden Tigers to pull within 11 at the break. South Alabama shot 31.6% before halftime.

“There are certain things we need to do a lot better on,” said Arrow. “We have not been the Mitchell Center but about six times to practice, and I think our shooting is indicative of that. We’ve got an early morning practice so hopefully they’ll be able to leave it tonight. We’ve got better shooters than what we’ve shown the past two exhibition games.”

The second half was a different story as USA converted 48.4% from the field after the break and used a 13-2 run right out of the gate to go up 51-29.

Tuskegee managed to close within 15 midway through the period, but a 13-4 burst by South Alabama put the contest out of reach.

Aaron Ragsdale paced the Golden Tigers with 12 points and seven rebounds. All but two points and two rebounds came in the first half.

“We’ve got the start of the season now,” said Arrow. “It’s here. We’ve worked long and hard and the season is upon us and we’ve got to go take care of business.”

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—