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MOBILE, Ala. – A 16-2 University of South Alabama run to start the second half opened up a huge lead to enable the Jaguar men's basketball team to ease to a 79-59 win against Houston Baptist Sunday in the final day of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.

The Jaguars won their final two games of the weekend after a loss Friday to improve to 4-2 on the season. The Huskies drop to 1-5.

"First and foremost, I would like to thank the administration support staff and everyone that allowed us to do this for three games," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "It wasn't easy and a lot of stuff goes into this. This really helped our young team get better. I felt like from Friday to Saturday to Sunday we steadily made progress as a team and I think it's really going to pay dividends down the stretch."

The USA defense locked down right after halftime and never gave HBU a chance to get back in the game. The Huskies missed 13 of their first 14 shots in the second half and committed four turnovers in the first eight minutes.

The scoring drought allowed the Jaguars to open up a 29-point lead at the 11:14 mark thanks to a 10-0 run started by freshman Ken Williams (Manvel, Texas) and capped off with five straight points from junior Dionte Ferguson (Prattville, Ala.) and a 3-pointer from freshman Austin Karazsia (Linton, Ind.).

"I think we had a focus and a mindset more on the defensive end of the floor," Graves said of the key in the first 10 minutes. "We didn't really worry about if we were making shots or missing shots. Our mindset was, how many stops can we get in a row? We really came close to shutting them out for a long period of time and that's really encouraging because there are going to be nights when shots don't go in for whatever reason, but you have to rely on your defense to keep you in the game until your make your shots. For those first 10 minutes I was really pleased with how well we guarded."

HBU's Cody Stetler stopped the scoreless drought with a free throw at the 10:58 mark and added a layup – the Huskies' second field goal in the first 9:56 – just under a minute later, but senior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) answered with a '3' and Williams added another for a 30-point advantage with 9:18 to play.

"They're a tough matchup; you combine (Rubit's) inside presence with a '4' man that's athletic and guards that can really shoot it and penetrate, dish and finish and they're a very complete ball club," HBU head coach Ron Cottrell said. "They're tough to stop, and when you're shooting 3s the way they were shooting today, that makes it doubly tough."

South Alabama senior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) led all players with 17 points and 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season and second in as many games. He scored 14 points in the first half in just 12 minutes of action.

"We wanted to try and keep Rubit and Ferguson out of the paint and get a body on them on rebounds, but those guys are so tough to defend," Cottrell said. "Rubit's a pro; we all know that, and he's going to be playing for a lot of money later on."

Williams added 13 points for the second straight game on 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point territory.

Sophomore Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas) dished out a team-high four assists with no turnovers, part of a 12-assist, seven-turnover effort as a team. The seven miscues are the teams' fewest in a game since giving it away seven times at Denver on Feb. 20, 2011.

"I thought we were really strong with the basketball," Graves said. "Yesterday, in particular against Wright State, we tried to drive it in there and they had a lot of hands on the ball and we weren't strong with it. Today, we really took that lesson from Saturday and applied it today so that was really encouraging to see."

Rob Lewis paced the Huskies with 14 points off the bench and Cody Joyce had 10.

South Alabama returns to the court Saturday against former Sun Belt Conference rival Middle Tennessee. The game will tip at noon and be carried live on CSS.

NOTES: South Alabama has led at halftime in every game this season and today's 15-point lead at the break is a season high… Both teams shot 44.4 percent from the floor in the first half but converted a combined 28.3 percent after intermission… HBU went just 1-for-9 from long range in the game… After missing eight of their first nine attempts from 3-point land, the Jaguars finished the first half hitting five of their last six… USA hit their average of nine triples per game exactly in 28 attempts; the Jags entered the game first in the Sun Belt in 3s per game… South Alabama went the last 9:18 without a field goal… Rubit's 14 points in the first half tie the most by a USA player in a half this season… He also moved into third place at USA in career free throw attempts (605)… South Alabama opponents have scored exactly 31 points in five of the team's six games in 2013-14; only William Carey (28) did not… The Jaguars have held four of their six opponents under 40 percent shooting for the game… Freshman Georgi Boyanov (Lovech, Bulgaria) scored all of his career-high six points at the free throw line (6-for-6).

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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