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MOBILE, Ala. – Junior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) scored a career-high 34 points and recorded his 14th double-double of the season in the University of South Alabama’s 88-64 victory over Louisiana at Lafayette Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars win their season-high fourth straight game of the season and for the seventh time in their last eight games to improve to 15-9 overall and 12-4 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Ragin’ Cajuns drop to 9-17 and 5-10.

“It was good to see us put together what I thought was a total game for two halves,” interim USA head coach Jeff Price said. “The first half I thought we played really well and the second half we built the lead some. We've had these leads before and allowed them to go down so it was good to see our team be able to step up a little bit and build this thing up instead of let it go down. It happened in a lot of ways. I thought we turned it up defensively in the second half.”

Rubit’s previous career high was 32 set in a road win at Louisiana at Monroe in January. He went 11-for-16 from the floor and 12-for-16 at the free throw line, and grabbed 12 rebounds.

“We felt like this was a game where we could have some success inside with him,” Price said. “Our game plan will be consistent. We don't have a lot of secrets here. We need to get the ball inside.”

Sophomore Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) added a double-double of his own with 18 points and 11 rebounds. He went 7 of 11 from the field and 2 of 4 from 3-point land. He scored 13 in the second half alone.

“I haven't even looked at the stats, but I could tell he was active,” Price said. “I talked to Mike a lot this week about how he wasn't rebounding like he was earlier. He just wasn't rebounding the ball and tonight before the game he needed to get me 10 and he got 11. It's more of a focus with Mike and if he really puts his mind to it. I mean, he's as athletic as anyone on the floor and as strong as anybody in the league and when he wants to he goes and gets it.”

The game remained close throughout the first half but the Jaguars started to pull away over the final four minutes, outscoring the Cajuns 9-0, including a 3-pointer from junior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) seconds before the halftime buzzer sounded.

Louisiana at Lafayette never really challenged in the second half as the lead grew to 17 in the first five minutes and an 11-1 run stretched South Alabama’s advantage to 72-48 with 8:04 left in the contest.

“They shot the ball well,” ULL head coach Bob Marlin said. “I thought Rubit shot it well from the perimeter as well as from the post. (Javier) Carter had a really nice game and made some jump shots. Mychal Ammons had a nice game outside. That might be the best front line in our league from the 3, 4, and 5 positions.”

Rubit and Ammons were the only Jags in double digits, but junior Dre Conner (Lauderhill, Fla.) dished out a team-high five assists, and Allen and senior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) both had eight points each.

For Louisiana at Lafayette, Elfrid Payton poured in 17 points and had a game-best seven assists. Kasey Shepherd came off the bench to tally 16 points and Shawn Long added 11.

Bryant Mbamalu, the league’s seventh-leading scorer entering the game (14.8 ppg), was held to four points on 1-for-6 shooting.

“Mychal Ammons and Antoine Allen are very good defensively,” Marlin said. “They’re strong, they’re quick, and they’re aggressive. And when they can lean on you like they did tonight, it’s hard to get it over them. Bryant worked hard, but credit South Alabama.”

South Alabama takes a week off before traveling to Sun Belt East leader Middle Tennessee Thursday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.

“We know that's going to be a really tough game on Thursday and we didn't want to talk about it until we got this one out of the way,” Price noted. “We'll talk about it a lot this week and see if our guys can answer the challenge on the road. We've played well on the road, 5-2 on the road against some really good teams.”

NOTES: Both teams shot 13-for-28 (46.4%) from the floor in the first half… South Alabama is 14-0 when leading or tied at halftime… USA’s 88 points are its most in regulation this season; the team scored 91 in double-overtime at ULL in January… Rubit’s double-double pulled him one shy of Long, who leads the SBC with 15; Long had eight rebounds tonight… Rubit has four career 30-point games with three coming this season… The 34 points ties Florida Atlantic’s Greg Gantt for the highest total in the conference in 2012-13… The Jags have posted a positive assist-to-turnover ratio in two consecutive games for the first time this season… USA’s 25 free throws tie a season high set in the season opener at Florida State and the 36 attempts are the most this year… South Alabama had two players record a double-double in the same game since Rubit and Antione Lundy vs. Troy on March 3, 2012… USA’s plus-16 rebounding margin (44-28) is the team’s highest since a plus-24 performance at ULM on Jan. 3.

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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