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ATLANTA – The University of South Alabama men’s basketball team went over nine minutes without a field goal late in the second half to let Tennessee State pull away with a 68-57 win Monday night at the Georgia State Sports Arena, part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic hosted by Georgia State.

The Jaguars fall to 2-1 while the Tigers improve to 1-3.

“It was an absolute, total let-down in the first half,” USA head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “I hate to say it, but we played selfishly. As good as we have been playing, we took too many bad shots. I don’t even have to look at the stats to see we took bad shots. We didn’t work the ball around.”

A lay-up from junior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) at the 10:24 mark of the second half pulled the Jags to within 51-43, but the team went cold shortly after, missing their next six shots with three turnovers. It wasn’t much better at the foul line as USA went 4-for-9 from the stripe over that span.

Tennessee State took advantage of South Alabama’s shooting woes, outscoring the Jaguars 17-4 to open up a 68-47 advantage.

“We didn’t run our offense,” Arrow said. “We couldn’t run our offense because we were shooting the ball. We had horrible decision making with the ball.”

USA came out strong to open the second half, scoring the first nine points of the period to cut a 12-point halftime deficit down to 36-33. The Jags went inside to Rubit as he accounted for eight of those points in less than three minutes of play.

“We played with energy,” Arrow said of the comeback. “We gave ourselves a chance—we made the extra pass and got layups.”

Three points was as close as South Alabama could get. Junior Xavier Roberson (Houston, Texas) hit a jumper with 15:07 left to make the score 38-35, but Tennessee State recorded the next four points to kick its lead up to seven. The two teams traded scores over the next few minutes before the Tigers went on a 7-0 run, highlighted by back-to-back buckets from Patrick Miller—the first one a 3-pointer—to give TSU a 51-39 lead.

Sophomore Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) answered with a lay-up but was unable to complete the three-point play. Rubit hit a lay-up of his own on the Jags next trip down the floor, but USA went cold shortly thereafter.

Despite going 0-for-6 from the floor in that crucial nine-minute span, South Alabama still converted 50.0 percent of its field goals after halftime. However, the team hit just 27.6 percent in the first half and were dominated on the boards, losing the rebounding battle 46-31 overall and 18-7 on the offensive glass.

“They kicked our tail on the boards,” Arrow said. “We had seven offensive rebounds. They took us to the ‘shed on the boards.

“We’re not rebounding like we did year. We have to do something about that. This team should be a very good rebounding team.”

The Tigers wasted little time in getting the game started, scoring within three seconds of winning the opening tip and jumped out to a 13-2 lead. The Jaguars missed their first three shots and committed three turnovers before finally making their first shot of the game.

Rubit led all players with 21 points, with 19 coming in the second half. He shot 7-for-10 from the floor and made all seven free throws.

“We weren’t getting him the ball (in the second half) and he wasn’t moving around much to get the ball. He started out slow; in the second half he got some more movement.”

Ammons was the only other Jaguar in double-figure scoring with 11 points and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds.

Miller paced the Tigers with 14 points and eight assists. Jay Harris added 12 points on two 3-pointers. Robert Covington tallied nine points and 10 rebounds.

The Jaguars will face Monmouth Tuesday at 3 p.m. CST.

NOTES: Ammons’ double-double streak ended at three, but he set a new career high with four assists, blocked a shot and had two steals… Senior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) extended his blocks streak to nine with two rejections… The Jaguars’ minus-15 rebounding margin is the lowest by the team since getting outrebounded by 15 last year at Florida State… The 46 rebounds allowed are also the most since that same FSU contest.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—