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MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama junior Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) recorded his sixth career double-double, including a career-best 14 rebounds, and men's basketball head coach Matthew Graves got the inaugural victory in his head coaching career, in a 74-58 defeat of Detroit Friday night at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars win their home opener for the 22nd straight year, a streak that dates back to 1992. The game served as the season opener for both teams.

"First and foremost, I was really proud of our team's effort," Graves said. "I thought they came out right from the start and played aggressive. They shared the basketball and I was so happy to see us go from taking a good shot to taking a great shot. We did a great job sharing the ball. In the first half, I think we had eight assists on 13 field goals, which is outstanding. Defensively, we did a great job rebounding the basketball, especially from our guards' standpoint. Our guards had over half of our defensive rebounds so in our two areas of emphasis in the first half we did a great job with both."

Senior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the first half and hit four of his five 3-point attempts on the night. Freshman Aakim Saintil (Roselle, N.J.) came off the bench to post 12 points and two assists.

"I thought Antoine did a great job of coming in and getting us off to a great start like a senior should," Graves stated. "Even though he didn't play Tuesday, he didn't pout about it. He was prepared and ready to go today."

In addition to Ammons' rebounding night, he added 13 points and two blocks, and made his only 3-point attempt. He has posted a double-double in each of his last two season openers and just missed a third his freshman season with 15 points and nine rebounds at Mississippi State.

Detroit shot just 28.9 percent for the game and 25.6 percent in the second half alone. USA forced UDM into 1-for-14 (7.1%) shooting from behind the 3-point line.

"I would be remiss not to mention our defensive effort," said Graves. "This is the second game in a row that we held a team under 30 percent field goal percentage. And if we continue to do that night in and night out it's not going to matter what we shoot. We're going to put ourselves in a great situation."

Much like the exhibition win over Mobile, South Alabama took the lead early and never gave it back. A three-point play from Juwan Howard, Jr. briefly gave UDM a 3-2 lead, but a jumper from senior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) on USA's next possession put the Jags back on top for good 2:12 into the contest.

Midway through the first half, Saintil spearheaded a 14-3 run that gave the Jags their biggest lead of the contest. He contributed nine of the team's 14 points over a four-minute stretch, including four on one possession after hitting the first of two at the free-throw line and converting the offensive rebound off the miss into three more points on a triple.

The lead grew to as much as 22 in the second half after a 13-2 spurt, with six different players scoring during the run.

After committing 24 miscues vs. Mobile, South Alabama had just 15 against Detroit. Just five came from the guards as freshmen Ken Williams (Manvel, Texas) and Saintil, and sophomore Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas) dished out nine assists against four turnovers.

Stevens set a new career high with four helpers.

"I thought they responded really well and part of that was the film session that we had on Wednesday," Graves said. "Mobile did an outstanding job of preparing us for what we were going to see tonight. Our freshmen really listened and learned and we have to continue getting our post guys to handle the ball a little bit better. It's new for them. We want them to play out on the perimeter and when they play out on the perimeter, it allows our guards better angles to drive and kick and make those extra passes. So I think our bigs will continue to get more comfortable handling the ball. I think ultimately our guards at the end there need to understand time and score and shot selection a little more. I think that will come with those young guys."

Rubit was held to nine points but grabbed 12 rebounds for his 52nd career double-digit rebounding performance, breaking a tie with Terry Catledge (1982-85) for first place in school history. Rubit hit three of his 10 field-goal attempts.

"Certainly we want all of our guys to play well," Graves said. "I think it does show, we have confidence in any of our guys to step up and make plays. I think we've shown that our system allows other players, and we've got it set up that certainly we want to get Augustine the ball as much as possible, but we've got a lot of other weapons we can use on any given night. When you can do that, you've got a chance to be really good."

Howard led all scorers with 18 points on 7 of 22 shooting from the floor and earned a double-double with a team-best 11 rebounds. Carlton Brundidge tallied 14 points, and Evan Bruinsma and Jarod Williams added 11 points apiece.

"We played extremely hard," Detroit head coach Ray McCallum said. "Evan had nine rebounds, and Juwan's experience is going to be key for us to have on the floor. It's unfortunate that energy was taken away from us with the fouls he picked up in the first half. Our freshmen competed but unfortunately couldn't get anything going scoring-wise, and a lot of guys learned a lot about Division I basketball and about Division I basketball on the road tonight."

South Alabama hits the road Tuesday for a clash with Texas televised on the Longhorn Network. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

NOTES: The two teams combined for 104 rebounds and 44 fouls… USA's home opener streak pushes its overall record in home lid-lifters to 38-8… The program is 31-15 in season openers in its 46-year history… Rubit moved into seventh place for career rebounds in Sun Belt Conference history with 903, nine shy of sixth… He finished the night with 1,399 career points, seven away from sixth in South Alabama history… Allen also hit 4 of 5 from 3-point land in last season's opener at Florida State to finish the night with a career-best 21 points… The Jags' 45 points in the first half are more than they scored in any first half last season… USA won the rebounding battle 53-51 but was out-boarded 32-25 after halftime… South Alabama started 6-for-11 on 3-pointers in the game but was just 3-for-15 in the game's final 25:14… USA blocked seven shots, getting a career-best three from junior Dionte Ferguson (Prattville, Ala.).

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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