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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Behind 21 points from junior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) and three tiebreaking free throws from senior Freddie Goldstein (Milwaukee, Wis.) with 25.7 seconds left, the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team defeated No. 25/24 Florida State 76-71 Friday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

The contest was the season opener for both teams. USA hosts William Carey in the Jags’ home opener Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m.

“The people that were here got to see a heck of a game,” Jaguars head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “I know this was an important game for them, hoisting the (ACC championship) banner, but I thought it was a good game. I think (FSU head coach) Leonard (Hamilton) and (associate head coach) Stan (Jones) do a great job. They have a bunch of young kids that will mature into monsters. This was a really good win for us. We came out and played hard; it was like a slugfest. We were just happy to come away with the win.”

Allen’s previous career high was nine in the 2009-10 season while at Miami (Fla.). He went 4-for-5 from 3-point land, helping the Jags shoot 9-for-15 from long distance as a team.

“We shot 60 percent from the 3s and they shot 23 percent; everything was even,” Arrow said. “Overall, I thought the 3-point shooting was the main ingredient for us to win.”

Allen led a group of five USA players in double-figures. Sophomore Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) recorded his second career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Goldstein also added 11—eight in the second half alone.

“It's been a long time since we allowed five guys to score in double figures,” Hamilton said. “They were very on point with everything that they did.”

Junior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) totaled 12 points and junior Xavier Roberson (Houston, Texas) recorded eight of his 10 points in the first half.

“Truthfully, one of our best players, Augustine Rubit, had an average night,” said Arrow. “When they put the 3-point line in, it became a guard’s game. You’ve got to have good guards and I feel like we have good guards to compete. Last year, we had one shooter, this year we have three shooters.”

Down three points with just over a minute left in the game, the Seminoles tied the score for the 13th time at 69-69 on a 3-pointer by Ian Miller. On the Jaguars’ next possession, Goldstein was fouled shooting a ‘3.’ He went to the line and hit all three to put the Jags up 72-69.

USA forced a 3-point miss by FSU’s Michael Snaer, who scored all 10 of his points in the first half and went 0-for-6 from the floor after halftime. Ammons came up with the rebound and converted twice at the line to give South Alabama a five-point advantage.

Florida State was fouled shooting a triple on its next possession but could only hit two of three at the line. Rubit hit two free throws with 2.8 seconds left to finish the scoring.

“They were a little tougher than we were,” Hamilton said. “They played with a lot more maturity. They executed their game plan better than we did.”

The Jags led by five at halftime and were up by seven less than a minute into the second half after a dunk from Ammons. But the Noles answered with a 7-0 run to tie the score at 43-43 with 17:51 to play in the game.

“We were just going on our own and we weren’t doing the things we practiced,” Arrow noted. “We had a little talk during the timeout that their way wasn’t working, so let’s do it our way. We came back and did that.”

The largest lead by either team for the next 17 minutes was four.

South Alabama’s defense held Florida State to 35.7 percent shooting in the second half, including 23.8 percent from 3-point land.

Montay Brandon and Terry Whisnant paced the Seminole offense with 11 points each.

“The bottom line is making shots and playing good defense,” Arrow said. “We want to hold the teams that we play to under 41 percent; they shot 41 percent but they only shot 23 percent from the 3s. We like to think we had something to do with that, and then we got good shots on offense. When you take good shots and you play good defense, good things will happen.”

NOTES: The Jaguars have defeated four teams from major conferences in the last four years, including two ranked opponents… USA knocked off No. 18/18 Florida in the 2009-10 season… Three of those wins came after losing to that same team the year before… Arrow recorded his second career win over the Seminoles—the first came as head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2004-05… Ammons has notched a double-double in his last two games—he posted his first in last season’s finale vs. Denver… The Jags had 19 turnovers but forced 17 FSU miscues on eight steals… Five of Snaer’s misses in the second half came from behind the 3-point line… The last player to score 21 points in their USA debut was Martino Brock in 2009… Goldstein tied his career high with five rebounds… Rubit moved into seventh place on USA’s career rebounding list with four rebounds… Florida State had won their last 10 season openers while South Alabama improved to 7-1 in their last eight… USA was 9-35 entering the night in road openers, and had lost their last 11, including 17 of 18.

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—