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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee finished on a 16-2 run and held the University of South Alabama men's basketball team without a field goal in the last 9:08 to defeat the Jaguars 65-55 Saturday afternoon at the Murphy Center.

The Blue Raiders extend their winning streak over the Jaguars to six—and win for the 33rd-consecutive time at home during the regular season—to improve to 6-1 on the year. USA falls to 4-3.

After jumping out to an eight-point lead at halftime, South Alabama shot just 12.5 percent in the second half and made one field goal in the last 14:20.

"I thought we came out and played really hard and focused early on," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "Anytime you play on the road you want to get off to a good start and I thought we did that. We controlled the tempo, we were attacking and making plays that you need in order to get that lead.

"In the second half we got lackluster and got on our heels. Like I told the guys in the locker room, I think it's a three-part problem: one, I have to do a better job of putting the players in a place to be successful. Two, I think our guards need to be more in attack mode—not to score the ball but to get others involved—and three, our bigs were stagnant. We stood around and they weren't as active in the second half as they were in the first half, so we have a lot of things we need to work on."

MTSU trailed 53-49 before its final push and scored 14 points at the free-throw line. A dunk from Shawn Jones at the 5:32 mark started a run of 13 unanswered points, the final 10 of which came at the charity stripe. Neiko Hunter, who shared team-high honors with 14 points, made two at the line and Jones added two more at the 4:12 mark for Middle Tennessee's first lead since midway through the first half.

The Blue Raiders' Tweety Knight went 3 of 4 at the line over a 30-second stretch before Kerry Hammonds II hit four in a row for a 62-53 advantage with just under a minute to play.

South Alabama missed its final 11 shots of the contest and went 0-for-13 from 3-point land in the second half after going 6-for-8 in the first.

"To a certain extent I think they turned the pressure up a little bit but I think it's really more our fault," Graves said. "We didn't attack like we did in the first half and we didn't continue to go at the rim. We settled for too many contested 3-point shots—which is what we want to give up on our end—but they made the adjustments and did what they needed to do. It's really disappointing for us."

USA maintained at least a five-point cushion in the first six minutes of the second half, but Jacquez Rozier scored the first five points in a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to two, and later, Hammonds hit MTSU's only 3-pointer in the second half to tie the score at 45-45 with 8:46 to play in the contest.

"What they did was make a conscious effort to drive the basketball." Graves said. "They have a veteran team over there and they took advantage of their opportunities. The bottom line is, we need to be tougher. We have to go after every loose ball. I thought we had a couple of guys do some good things and compete but we've got to have the whole team do that for an extended period of time.

South Alabama took control of the first half with a 14-3 spurt over a six-minute stretch that saw a tie game turn into an 11-point advantage for the Jags. Senior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) started the run with a triple and freshman Austin Karazsia (Linton, Ind.) and junior Dionte Ferguson (Prattville, Ala.) finished it off with a 3-pointer and a jumper, respectively, on back-to-back trips down the court for an 11-point lead with 5:36 remaining before halftime.

USA senior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) led all scorers with 15 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Freshman Aakim Saintil (Roselle, N.J.) came off the bench to post 14 points and a career-high five steals. Junior Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

Hunter and Hammonds tallied 14 points each for the Blue Raiders and Knight added 12.

South Alabama takes a day off before hosting city rival Spring Hill Monday night at 7:05 p.m.

NOTES: Middle Tennessee's six-game win streak is the longest active streak by an opponent against South Alabama… USA is averaging 53.7 points in the skid… The Jags' 11-point lead in the first half marked the first time they led the Blue Raiders by double-digits since Jan. 2, 2011, which is also USA's last win in the series… The last USA player to record at least five steals in a game prior to Saintil was Javier Carter, who also had five vs. New Mexico State on Dec. 4 of last year… Rubit became the fifth player in school history to total 100 career blocks and moved into second at South Alabama for career free throws (448)… USA has led at halftime in each game this season by an average of 10.7 points… The Jags' six 3-pointers tie their season low and the 28.6 percentage from distance is the team's lowest of the season… USA had 10 turnovers for the game, the second-fewest this season, and the Jags are averaging just 8.5 over their last two outings… The Jaguars have held five of their seven opponents under 40 percent shooting from the floor.

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—