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MOBILE, Ala. – Louisiana-Monroe came back from a 34-27 deficit at halftime and Tylor Ongwae scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half to give the Warhawks a 64-58 win over South Alabama Saturday night in the Mitchell Center.

ULM improves to 6-7 overall and 3-2 in the Sun Belt Conference. USA drops to 7-12 and 1-5.

South Alabama shot 22.2 percent from the floor in the second half—9.1 percent from 3-point land—and just 32.2 percent for the game.

"Unfortunately, offensively, we didn't do a good job of attacking," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "We settled for a lot of 3-point shots when we had an advantage on getting the ball inside to Augustine (Rubit) and Mychal (Ammons). Our guards continued to shoot shots and you try to sub guys in and out and they keep doing the same thing. It's very frustrating that we're not learning from some of the mistakes that we've made in previous games."

The Warhawks countered with 48.0 percent shooting after halftime and Ongwae and Nick Coppola combined for 24 second-half points.

"(Ongwae's) their best player and he certainly did a good job, but three or four of the baskets that he got in the second half were, to be quite honest, just really bad defense on our part," Graves said. "It wasn't anything that he was doing or not doing, it was that were latched on to guys and feeling sorry for ourselves because we weren't making shots. That lack of energy and effort really affected him. He made a couple of nice moves, but it was really a collection of our poor defense."

Louisiana-Monroe scored the first seven points of the second half to tie the game at 34-34 and used an 11-3 spurt midway through the period to take its largest lead of the contest, 47-43, after back-to-back layups from Coppola and Amos Olatayo.

The Jaguars answered with six straight points—the last four coming at the foul line—to get the deficit back down to 52-51, but the Warhawks scored eight of the next 10 points with Coppola doing most of the damage. His three-point play with 3:41 left kicked the lead back up to four, and after an Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) layup, Ongwae dunked home two points and on ULM's next trip down the floor, Coppola hit a 3-pointer for a 60-53 lead with 2:18 remaining.

USA senior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) nailed a 3-pointer with just under a minute left but the Jags missed their last three shots and would get no closer.

"Some of the guys whose names you don't hear as much really, really helped us with this win tonight," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "It shows the power of a team and five guys working as one. And these guys really want to, and they work at it regardless of the circumstances, regardless of who's out there, regardless of who's not here or doesn't play much. All of those things are the power of a real team, and maybe that's what we got out of this trip more than anything."

Rubit posted team-high totals of 18 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season and third in the last five games.

"I thought he started to be more assertive in the last four or five minutes, but some of those things he was doing then I want to see at the start of the second half," Graves stated. "We got him the ball, I believe it was twice there before the first media (timeout), and he just wasn't real sharp with it."

Freshman Aakim Saintil (Roselle, N.J.) reached double-digit points for the third straight game with 11 points. Junior Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) matched Rubit's 12 boards and added eight points.

The Warhawks placed four in double-digit scoring, including Ongwae's 19. Olatayo came off the bench to score 12, and Coppola and Daniel Grieves had 10 each. All 10 of Coppola's points came after intermission on 3-for-3 shooting from the floor.

South Alabama returns to the court in one week at Texas-Arlington for a 7:30 p.m. tip.

NOTES: Rubit's double-double is the 50th of his career, which leads all active Division I players and ranks second in school history behind Terry Catledge's 52… Rubit is averaging 17.5 points and 10.3 rebounds in his last four games… USA's 3-point percentage of 14.8 is the team's lowest this season… The Jaguars turned the ball over 10 times after committing a season-high 26 miscues Thursday… Junior Dionte Ferguson (Prattville, Ala.) scored all seven of his points at the foul line and tied his season high with six rebounds in 12 minutes of work… ULM's Jayon James, who entered the game averaging 10.8 points per contest, was held scoreless but he dished out a game-best five assists... USA grabbed a season-best 23 offensive rebounds—nine coming from Rubit—and won the battle of the boards 46-34.

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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