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MONROE, La. – University of South Alabama junior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) scored a career-high 32 points and the Jaguars held off a late charge from Louisiana at Monroe to win 77-72 Thursday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

USA gets back over .500 at 7-6 and improves to 4-1 in the Sun Belt Conference. ULM drops to 2-8 and 1-3.

“Anytime you win on the road, it’s good,” USA interim head coach Jeff Price said. “We all know that road wins are hard to get and I’m obviously happy we were able to pull the game out. I thought the margin should have been greater; we hurt ourselves turning the ball over so much and we didn’t need to. We got a little too careless; we need to learn not to get too comfortable with the lead and let people back in the game. We have to play better down the stretch. I’ll look at the tape and see what I can do better to help us finish. We just didn’t finish the game real well.”

One game after setting a season low in shooting percentage, the Jags converted a season-best 59.1 percent from the floor, but tied their season high with 25 turnovers that led to 33 ULM points.

“Again, I need to look at the tape, but a lot of them were just unforced turnovers,” Price said. “It’s not like Monroe is a big pressure team. To our credit, we were trying to share the ball, but at times we were forcing it too much, trying to force it in to Aug, make a big play or thread a needle. We just have to understand the value of the basketball and how important it is. We’re not good enough to throw the ball away like that.”

Rubit missed just one shot from the floor, going 11-for-12, and went 10-for-12 at the foul line. He poured it on in the second half with 20 points on 6 of 6 shooting.

He grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to record his fifth straight double-double, the longest streak in his career.

“He was outstanding,” Price said. “He was a dominant factor in the game. Their posts were undersized and had a hard time with him. I thought he did a nice job of sharing the ball and kicking it out. We got some nice looks outside because of him. He’s just been playing great lately. His effort’s been great, his attitude is good and he’s playing extremely well right now.”

Junior Dre Conner (Lauderhill, Fla.) was the only other Jaguar in double-figures with a season-best 12 points.

USA led by as many as 17 points in the first half and was ahead 71-59 with 3:21 left in the contest before ULM went on a 10-2 run to close to four points with 1:16  left on two free throws from Kyle Koszuta.

Conner put back his own missed shot on South Alabama’s next possession to give the Jags a six-point lead, and after the Warhawks missed a 3-pointer, Rubit added to USA’s lead with a free throw.

Amos Olatayo hit a triple with 16 seconds left on ULM’s next possession to cut the deficit back down to four, but freshman Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas) converted once at the charity stripe and forced a turnover seconds before the final buzzer sounded.

“We did what we had to do and that’s a good sign,” Price said. “In the last minute we did what we had to do to win the game and made our free throws down the stretch. We got some stops when we had to and got some big rebounds. We just got careless in the last three minutes of the game and I need to take a look at that and see what I can do to make us better in those situations, but we’ll move forward.”

Unlike its last game, South Alabama got off to a hot start and opened up a 23-6 lead at the 9:28 mark of the first half. USA hit 10 of its first 15 shots and got contributions from five different players. Rubit had nine of the team’s first 23 points.

“The biggest difference early was us defensively creating some offensive opportunities,” Price noted. “We did a nice job of getting the ball inside and not taking some jump shots. I thought that was real important.”

The Warhawks responded immediately and went on a 22-8 run to pull within three on a tip-in with 1:29 left before the break but the Jaguars scored the last five points of the half to lead 36-28.

Olatayo came off the bench to lead ULM with 18 points. Millaun Brown tallied 13 and R.J. McCray added 10.

South Alabama opens the 2013 calendar year on the road Jan. 3 against Louisiana at Monroe. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

NOTES: Rubit’s previous career high in points was 31, set last season vs. Alcorn State and tied Nov. 21 at Georgia State… He helped the Jags win the rebounding battle 39-15… He is one rebound away from tying Ed Rains for third at USA in career rebounds (719)… Rubit also tied his career high in free throws and free throw attempts in a game… Senior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) started for the first time since suffering a concussion before the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi game and extended his blocks streak to seven games… USA also committed 25 turnovers in the loss to Monmouth on Nov. 20… The Jaguars shot 61.1 percent in the second half, a new season high.

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—