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MOBILE, Ala. – After falling behind by 17 points in the first half, the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team rallied to within two late in the game, but was unable to overcome New Mexico State, losing 58-52 Tuesday night at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars fall to 4-4 while the Aggies improve to 5-4.

USA got as close as two points with two minutes left in the game, but two missed free throws and two turnovers over the next 1:44 doomed the Jags.

“We had so many chances to win that ball game, but we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Jaguar head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “It seemed like every time we got it to one point or three points we made a horrible decision on shot selection or turned the ball over.”

New Mexico State took control early in the contest, going on a 21-2 run in almost 10 minutes. After making their first attempt from the floor in the game, the Jaguars missed 16 of their next 18 shots, including nine in a row.

“We shot 31 percent,” Arrow said. “I thought our shot selection was pretty bad.”

“Coming out we were taking some crazy shots, we had to just calm down and get back to the plan and play Jaguar basketball,” said sophomore Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.). “It was just too late, we should have started the game the way we finished it.”

South Alabama responded with eight unanswered points, capped off with a 3-pointer by senior Freddie Goldstein (Milwaukee, Wis.), and closed the first half on a 19-8 run to get to 31-25 at the break. The Jags forced three turnovers over four possessions to help close the gap.

A 3-pointer by Ammons in the early moments of the second half cut the margin to two, but the Aggies answered with a 9-2 spurt to kick the lead back up to 42-33 with 11:10 to play.

Trailing 53-46 with 4:32 left in the contest, South Alabama sandwiched a tip-in from senior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) and a triple from junior Xavier Roberson (Houston, Texas) around a NMSU free throw to close to 54-51. The Jags had a chance to close the deficit to one with two minutes left, but Rubit missed a second free throw and USA turned the ball over on its next possession.

NMSU didn’t fare much better at the line, making only 1 of 2, but Ammons, who scored a game-high 16 points, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1:17 left.

The Jags got a stop and called timeout with 33.7 seconds left, but committed another turnover and the Aggies converted both free throw attempts at the other end.

“We just right there at the end drew up a play,” Arrow said. “Mychal ran it and was wide open and we threw the ball away. That would have cut it to one point. We turn the ball over, they go down and instead of being down one they make the free throws and we’re down five. I’m happy that our guys came back but I’m disappointed in crucial situations we didn’t do what we could to win the game.”

USA entered the game as the Sun Belt Conference’s best free throw shooting team, but converted just nine times at the stripe in 17 attempts and hit just 1 of 3 in the final two minutes.

“Tonight if we made our free throws we probably would have won the game,” Arrow said. “(We were) nine for 17. We were leading the conference in free throw shooting. So we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. You only get so many times in a game. And it’s just sad because we still had an opportunity to win the game.”

Ammons was the only Jaguar in double-digit points. Rubit pulled down 10 rebounds, but was held to a season-low eight points.

For New Mexico State, Daniel Mullings poured in a team-high 13 points while Sim Bhullar came off the bench to post 12 points on 6 of 7 shooting. Bandja Sy recorded a double-double with 11 points and 14 boards.

South Alabama heads back on the road Saturday with a road clash against UAB at 7 p.m.

NOTES: Rubit, the conference’s leading free throw shooter coming into the game, went 2-for-4 at the line… He missed two free throws in a game for just the second time all season… Carter set a new career high with five steals and added three blocks… The five steals are the most by a USA player since Dec. 12, 2010… Roberson also set a new career-best with four thefts… Rubit was held to single-digit points for the first time this season, but he moved into 16th place in school history for career points (950) and fifth place in career rebounds (649)… USA won the rebounding battle 38-37 thanks to 15 offensive rebounds… The Jags had just one double-figure scorer for the first time all season… The 31.7 shooting percentage was also a season low… New Mexico State missed its first five free throw attempts of the night… The Jaguars totaled a season-high 13 steals.

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).

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