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

MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama redshirt freshman Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) had a career-high 24 points and the Jaguars broke a late 72-72 tie with eight straight points to defeat Florida International 86-78 Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.

The win, No. 700 in the program’s history, broke a four-game losing streak. USA is 8-10 overall and 2-5 in the Sun Belt Conference while FIU loses its fourth straight game to fall to 8-11 and 3-4.

The Panthers rallied from 14 points down in the second half, using two big runs to eventually take the lead, but went over 3 ½ minutes without a field goal while the Jags hit all 12 of their shots from the foul line.

“We found out something about ourselves tonight,” USA head coach Ronnie Arrow said after the game. “Seven guys played double-digit minutes for us. We’re going to have to be a seven, eight-man pressing team. That’s the only way we get our juices going. We finally figured it out, as a coaching staff, that every time that we’ve pressed in these games, or had to press, is when we’ve scored our most points. We’ve got to continue to work hard and get better and better at what we did tonight.”

South Alabama went into halftime up 13—its largest lead at the break against a Sun Belt team this year—thanks to a 3-pointer at the buzzer from sophomore Rico Sanders (College Park, Ga.).

The Jaguars grabbed their largest advantage (14) early in the second half on a triple by senior Gary Redus (Decatur, Ala.) but an 18-6 FIU run, powered by two Alex Legion 3-pointers, pulled the Panthers to 54-53 with 10:58 to play.

A 9-2 USA spurt extended its lead back up to seven, but another big Florida International run, this time 15-4, made the score 72-70, its first lead since the opening moments of the game.

But FIU went cold after that, missing its next seven shots from the floor while USA was perfect at the line (12-for-12) and from the field (2-for-2), to cement the win.

After hitting just two of its six free throw attempts in the first half, the Jaguars converted 22 of 24 after halftime and 24 of 30 (80.0%) for the game.

Rubit recorded his ninth double-double of the season—tying him for the conference lead—with 24 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out.

“I thought the guards did an excellent job of getting the ball inside,” said Arrow. “We went inside, we went outside and hit some jumpers early in the game. That’s what basketball is all about. You’ve got to start with the inside when you have a guy like Aug in there. If I was a guard on this team I’d love throwing it in there. I think that those guys did a really good job.”

Sophomore Martino Brock (Memphis, Tenn.) had 19 points and senior Tim Williams (Pontiac, Mich.) totaled 14 points.

Florida International shot 38.2 percent (21-55) for the contest—including 30.4 percent in the first half—the first time in four games a South Alabama opponent shot less than 50 percent.

“The only stat I look at is 38 percent shooting for them,” said Arrow. “We’ll win a lot of games by holding the other team to 38 percent. When I’ve walked in here the other times it’s been 60. That isn’t good. It’s a lot better when it’s 38 percent. We’ll win a lot of games holding teams to that.”

Legion finished with a career-high 23 points on 5-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Marvin Roberts got nine of his 21 points from the free throw line and DeJuan Wright reached double-figures with 15 for FIU.

South Alabama goes out on the road next week to take on in-state rival Troy Thursday night at 7 p.m.

NOTES: South Alabama has won five in a row at home against FIU and Arrow is 7-1 lifetime against the school… Roberts is averaging 21.3 points in four career games against South Alabama… The 86 points are USA’s most since scoring 90 vs. Mobile on Dec. 27, the most in a league game since totaling 96 in overtime on Feb. 14, 2010 at Florida Atlantic and the most in regulation since Feb. 14, 2009, also against FAU… Rubit has three 20-point double-double games in his career and two have come against FIU… Williams tied his career high in assists (5)… The Jags converted 14 Panther turnovers into 18 points, compared to nine FIU points off 11 USA miscues… Rubit tied his personal best with three blocks… The attendance of 5,431 is the largest since Nov. 26, 2008 and the largest for a Sun Belt opponent since Feb. 28, 2008.

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—