Game Notes
MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men’s basketball season enters the homestretch this week and the Jaguars close out the regular season with two games at the Mitchell Center, starting Thursday night against Arkansas at Little Rock.
The game can be heard in Mobile on 105.5 WNSP or online at WNSP.com. A videostream will be available for Jaguar Athletics All-Access subscribers at USAJaguars.com.
South Alabama (11-14, 5-9) is coming off a 48-47 victory at Denver on Sunday. The Jaguars rallied from a 14-point deficit at halftime—the first win this season when trailing at the half—to snap a three-game losing streak.
“Any time you win it makes things a lot better,” USA head coach
Ronnie Arrow said. “We had the opportunity to win at North Texas also and we let that one get away. We played good enough and hard enough to win but it didn’t happen. It showed a lot of character from our kids to come back and play as hard as we did and win at Denver, which a conference school hadn’t done in 16 tries at their place.”
The Jags got another dominating performance on the boards from redshirt freshman
Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) who grabbed 16 rebounds, his fourth-most of the year, and added 14 points and a career-high-tying three blocks.
Senior
Tim Williams (Pontiac, Mich.) broke out of a mini-scoring slump with 10 of his 14 points after halftime to lead the comeback. He had not reached double-digit points since Jan. 30.
UALR (15-13, 7-6) has split its last six games, including its last two by a combined four points. The Trojans currently sit in fourth place, 1 ½ games out of a three-way tie for first in the Sun Belt Conference West Division.
“It’ll be a very physical game, as it always is playing one of (UALR head coach)
Steve (
Shields’s) teams,” said Arrow. “They have at least three of the best shooters in the conference in
Solomon Bozeman,
Matt Mouzy and
D’Andre Williams. Any team that can make 17 3s in a game, you have to guard and respect the 3-point line. You have to show up ready to play because it’s going to be physical. We need to be able to push the ball and score in transition.”
The Jaguars 3-point defense will be tested by Bozeman, the Sun Belt’s most accurate long-range shooter at 47.9 percent. The senior had a streak of 11 straight games with a trey, including seven in a row with two or more, but is just 3-for-11 in his last five outings. Bozeman had a team-high 19 points last season in Mobile and ranks second in the league in scoring (16.1).
“He’s got NBA range,” Arrow said. “He’s liable to shoot it from the bench. You don’t think he’ll shoot it as far out as he catches it, then all of the sudden he’s shooting it. The best way to keep him from shooting it is not let him get it.”
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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