Game Notes
MOBILE, Ala. – With the end of the season right around the corner, the University of South Alabama men’s basketball program will host its final home game of the year and will go for its third straight win Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.
The Jaguars will also be looking for revenge over the Hilltoppers’ 75-66 win in Bowling Green two weeks ago. Senior Antione Lundy (Saginaw, Mich.) will be honored in a ceremony before the game.
“Western Kentucky is a young team and will be on the road,” USA head coach
Ronnie Arrow said. “They’re at our place and this is one that we should and need to win. The first five teams in the conference get a bye in the tournament, and we need some help, but if we take care of our business we have a chance. We need to win out but they’re all winnable games. But you can’t win out until you win your next game, and for us, that’s Western Kentucky.”
The Jaguars (14-10, 6-7 Sun Belt) and Hilltoppers (9-17, 5-8) will tip off at 7:05 p.m. The game can be heard on WNSP 105.5 FM and www.wnsp.com. Subscribers to Jaguars All-Access can watch live on USAJaguars.com. There will also be updates via live stats, twitter (@USAJaguarSports) and live chat.
USA is arguably playing its best basketball of the season and has won four of its last five games, including an 88-86 win at Louisiana at Monroe last week. The Jags accumulated their second-most points of the year and most in a Sun Belt game this season.
Arrow believes it is the improved production of the bench players that has led the team’s resurgence. Junior
Wendell Wright (Long Beach, Calif.) has five assists in his last two outings and sophomore
Dallas Jones (New Market, Ala.) tallied a career-best 12 points on four 3-pointers.
“We’ve got guys contributing now the way that we thought they would,” said Arrow. “The biggest ones are Wendell and Dallas. They’re doing the things that we brought them here to do. Wendell’s not going to be a big scorer, but he can guard and get assists because he can handle the ball. Dallas has to shoot the ball for us. We need another threat from the outside besides Freddie (Goldstein). Those two guys have been coming off the bench and giving us good minutes.”
Keying the scoring burst vs. the Warhawks was junior
Freddie Goldstein (Milwaukee, Wis.), who tied his own school record with nine 3-pointers and scored a career-high 33 points. He is the first USA player since
Demetric Bennett in 2007-08 to have multiple 30-point outings in the same season and his scoring total is the highest by a Jaguar in 2011-12.
Western Kentucky is enduring its worst season since 1999-00 and is 9-17 after a five-game losing streak in January. The Toppers won three of four after reversing the skid, including the win over the Jags.
“They’re playing a lot of freshmen and they’ve gained some experience,” Arrow noted. “They shot the ball extremely well when they played us. I thought we played well but tired out at the end. Hopefully they won’t shoot the ball as well as they did before. When you look at the stats, they’re not a good shooting team, but if you let them get into the lane and get some easy buckets, they’ll score on their quickness and not out of their offense.”
The Hilltoppers have just one player averaging double-digits – freshman
Derrick Gordon with 11.4 points per game – but four average 8.9 or better. One is
Jamal Crook, fourth on the squad with 9.0 ppg, who tallied a career-best 24 points against South Alabama on Feb. 4.
“Crook is very quick with the ball,” Arrow said. “He can make things happen with the ball in his hands. We have to contain his dribble. He’s at his best when he’s driving by you, taking runners and hitting the open man. He was 9-for-10 when we played him last time but he only hit one ‘3’ – the rest were runners. We can’t let him get buckets in transition.”
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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