Game Notes

MOBILE, Ala. – With a 69-52 exhibition win behind them, the University of South Alabama men's basketball team formally begins the 2014-15 season Friday at home against Carroll (Mont.) College.

The Jaguars and Fighting Saints will tip off at 7:05 p.m. at the Mitchell Center. Live stats and video will be available on USAJaguars.com, updates will be provided at @SouthAlaMBK, and fans can listen to the game on 99.9 FM or on iHeartRadio.com.

"I'm very excited about Friday and having the opportunity to kick the season off," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "We have everybody ready to play and we'll continue to tweak our rotations and figure out what combination of guys play best with each other. We get started right away on Friday and turn around and play at Southern Miss on Monday. In a matter of 72 hours we have two regular-season games. We've had a good start to the week in preparation and I know the players are ready for Friday as well."

A win would give the Jaguars their 23rd consecutive home-opening win, and a 1-0 start to the season for the ninth time in the last 10 years.

An increased emphasis on scoring in transition led to 15 fast-break points against Mobile, a total that would have been second most in a game last season. However, Graves wants to make sure the team doesn't forget about their more conventional ways of scoring.

"We're really putting a big emphasis on scoring in the halfcourt," Graves said of the team's focus this week. "We did a great job of getting out in transition and we need to continue to do that all year, but there will be nights when we don't get out in transition and we're forced to play in the halfcourt and be disciplined, be aggressive, pick our spots and make the extra pass. We've really focused the last couple of the days on executing at a high level in the halfcourt."

Sophomore Ken Williams (Houston, Texas) picked up where he left off from last season, leading all scorers against Mobile with 19 points on three 3-pointers. Newcomers Taishaun Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.) and John Brown (Charlotte, N.C.) added 14 and 13 points, respectively. Johnson also dished out a team-best three assists and had three steals and two blocks.

Carroll, an NAIA member of the Frontier Conference, enters Friday's contest with a 6-1 record, and is already three wins shy of last season's total. The Fighting Saints opened with three straight wins and picked up a pair of road victories prior to their trip to Mobile.

It will be the first meeting between the two schools.

"Their head coach, Carson Cunningham, is a good friend and a former Division I player at Purdue," said Graves. "They're very physical, they play fundamentally-sound basketball and are really skilled. They're not overly athletic, but they rely more on skill and physicality. They're going to execute at a very good rate so they'll test our discipline on the defensive end of the floor."

The Fighting Saints scored 109 and 97 points in their first two outings and have two players averaging more than 16 points per game: Oliver Carr (16.6 ppg) and Zach Taylor (16.3 ppg). Carr has scored 26 or more on two occasions—leading the team in field goal percentage at .675—while Taylor poured in 29 against MSU-Billings.

"For us defensively, we're going to really focus on us and our system," Graves said. "We need to be great in our system and how we're going to guard different actions. Throughout the year, that's how it's going to be—can we execute our system? With different individuals, can we take away certain tendencies? With their two leading scorers, instead of them scoring 16, can we hold them to 12 and 10? If you knock down two or three baskets over the course of a game, that's a big difference with a team like that."

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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