2014-15 Schedule (.pdf)MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama women's basketball head coach Terry Fowler announced the non-conference portion of the Jaguar women's schedule on Wednesday, finalizing the 2014-15 for the upcoming season. The Jaguar women announced the Sun Belt portion of their schedule back at the end of July.
USA will face three 20-game win teams from a year ago during their nine-game non-conference schedule, which also includes one conference champion. Overall, the Jaguars will welcome 15 regular-season opponents to the Mitchell Center this season.
The schedule sees the Jaguar women begin things with five-straight regular season games on their home floor. Playing at home to start the season could pay dividends for South Alabama as the club welcomes eight newcomers to its roster. Fowler hopes that the early home schedule will give his unit time to gel and gain confidence.
"The schedule just kind of worked out that way for us," Fowler said speaking of the early home match ups. "I feel that it's good for us to have these early home games for us with our new group of players. We played well at home last year, but had some difficulties on the road. Hopefully we can use this as an advantage and play well in well in front of our home crowd and get off to a fast start."
After hosting William Carey for an exhibition contest on Nov. 10, South Alabama will open up the 2014-15 campaign at home against regional foe Southern Miss on Nov. 17. The Golden Eagles enter this season coming off a school-record 27 wins a year ago.
Following the meeting with Southern Miss, USA will then host Mobile (11/19), Alabama State (11/23), Indiana State (11/26) and Spring Hill (12/2). The Rams and the Jags played to a double-overtime exhibition thriller last season. Mobile rode that strong exhibition showing to a 23-9 mark and earned a bid to the NAIA national tournament. The meeting versus the Hornets will be the first between the two clubs since the 2004-05 season. South Alabama opened up last season at ISU in Terra Haute. The Sycamores went on to finish with 20 wins and won the Missouri Valley Conference title, the program's first since the '05-'06 season.
After beginning the month against the Badgers, the Jaguars will then hit the road for four-consecutive games away from Mobile. USA will first travel to Thibodaux, La., to take on Southland Conference member Nicholls State – coming off a 17-win season of its own – on Dec. 6. After an eight-day break, South Alabama will return to action at Ole Miss on Dec. 14 and travel to Tennessee Tech two-days later. The Jags will then close out their road trip at UAB on Dec. 21.
"One of the good things with this road stretch is that with the exception of the Nicholls State game, all of those non-conference road games come after our final exams are done," Fowler said. "It will be a great chance for us to bond as a team and come together on the road. We hope gain some momentum at the end of our non-conference schedule as we get ready to head into our conference schedule."
The Jaguars will then break for Christmas before opening up Sun Belt Conference action on Dec. 30 against defending league champion Arkansas State at the Mitchell Center.
"It's a tough conference schedule," Fowler said. "We open up at home against Arkansas State. The league also adds Appalachian State this season who is a really good, athletic team. We also had Georgia Southern, who is a bigger and more physical team. Bringing them into the league kind of changes things up a little bit. I'm excited about the conference schedule though. The travel is going to be a little bit different for us playing on Thursday's and Saturday's mostly. It only gives you one day to prepare for the Saturday game, so we'll have to do a lot of prep work for those opponents early in the week, but it also gives us a chance to really concentrate on improving ourselves as the season goes along."
Following the league opener versus the Red Wolves, USA will travel to Texas-Arlington (Jan. 3) and Arkansas-Little Rock (Jan. 5).
South Alabama then returns home for a pair of games against new Sun Belt members Appalachian State (Jan. 8) and Georgia Southern (Jan. 10), before heading back out on the road the next week for another grueling stretch of four games in a week's time. The run starts Jan 15 with a pair of road tilts at Texas State and Louisiana-Lafayette (Jan. 17). Two days later USA hosts Arkansas-Little Rock (Jan. 19), then finishes out the run Jan. 22 at Appalachian State.
A week later the Jaguars close out the month of January when they welcome Louisiana-Lafayette (Jan. 29) then travel to Louisiana-Monroe (Jan. 31).
USA begins February at home, starting with back-to-back contests against Texas State (Feb. 5) and Georgia State (Feb. 7). The Jags go to in-state rival Troy (Feb. 12) before hosting Texas-Arlington on Valentine's Day.
A trip to the Peach State for games at Georgia State (Feb. 19) and Georgia Southern (Feb. 21) precedes a home contest vs. Louisiana-Monroe (Feb. 26).
Following a week break, South Alabama returns to the court March 5 at Arkansas State to begin the final week of the regular season and concludes the year at home against Troy (March 7).
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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