Game Notes

MOBILE, Ala. – Following a split of their first two games—a win at home and a loss on the road—the University of South Alabama men's basketball team starts a four-game homestand Monday night at the Mitchell Center against William Carey.

Fans can listen to the game on 105.5 FM and WNSP.com or watch a live videostream on USA's Jaguars All-Access subscription service. Updates will also be provided via twitter (@SouthAlaMBK) and live stats on USAJaguars.com.

Monday will be the start of four straight at home for South Alabama, the longest stretch in Mobile this season. The team has won eight in a row at the Mitchell Center dating back to January.

"(The homestand) gives us a chance, not only to play in front of our home fans, but a chance to prepare and focus on us," said USA head coach Matthew Graves. "I'm excited about getting out there and playing William Carey on Monday and with the three-game tournament at home, it simulates what we'll be facing in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. It's good preparation for us."

The Jaguars will have their hands full with the No. 10 team in NAIA and the preseason favorite in the Southern States Athletic Conference. William Carey enters Monday's contest 2-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play after a pair of road wins.

The two schools met last year in the Mitchell Center. USA rallied from an early eight-point deficit and outscored WCU 46-28 after halftime in an 82-64 win.

"They're very athletic; they're undersized but at the same time they play at a very fast rate," Graves noted. "In their first game they put up 61 points in the second half. Their ability to drive the basketball, draw fouls and get up and down the floor—I like that because it will be a great test for us to see how much we learned from the Texas game. Once we score—or on a miss—we need to really get back and set our defense so William Carey will provide a great test for us on that."

The Crusaders have five players in double-digit points on the season, led by Daron Bell's 19.5 point-per-game average. Bell had a team-high 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench against the Jaguars last year.

Jeremiah Dunnings is William Carey's second-leading scorer at 15.0 points per contest and has a team-best three 3-pointers.

"Dunnings is outstanding; I think he was preseason first team all-American," Graves said. "He can really score in bunches. You have to be concerned about a kid like that. They have a couple of other guys that have the ability to go on runs and score but Dunnings is the only we're really going to focus on early."

South Alabama is coming off an 84-77 loss at Texas, a game that saw the Jags lead by as many as 17 points—and 14 at halftime—before allowing a 20-5 Longhorn run to end the contest.

"We took a look at a lot of film Thursday—about 30 clips—to show them where we can improve," Graves said. "What I told them was I'm very encouraged because if we play a perfect game and get beat, then you don't have much room to improve, but we have a lot of areas we can get better at, and that's very encouraging because our ceiling is very high on this team."

Senior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) paced the Jags with 22 points, including the first two 3-pointers of his career, and eight rebounds. USA got 16 points from junior Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) on four triples, and 12 each from senior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) and sophomore Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas).

Those four, all upperclassmen, account for 72.2 percent of the team's offense and have helped support the team as Graves tries to bring along six freshmen.

"I don't think it's any surprise because those guys have been through it and they have the experience," Graves stated. "You want your older guys to lead. Our freshmen are playing OK right now—I think they'll get a lot better as they get more comfortable—but it's really encouraging to see our older guys taking that leadership role and we need to translate that a little more to the defensive end of the floor."

After holding Detroit to 28.9 percent shooting in the season opener, South Alabama allowed Texas to convert 48.5 percent from the floor and 52.8 percent after intermission, which led to 53 second-half points.

"After showing the film to our players, they realize if we sprint back and set our defense, we're a tough team to score on and we just didn't do that enough times in the Texas game," Graves said. "It was really disappointing on a made shot by us, Texas would get down the floor and be at the rim before we got our defense set. We really focused on that Thursday in practice. The second thing we really emphasized was our ability to defensive rebound. We have to do a better job of holding teams to one tough shot."

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—