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MOBILE, Ala. – Arkansas-Little Rock's Josh Hagins hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:25 left in the game and the Trojans survived several University of South Alabama comeback attempts in a 62-58 win Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The Trojans sweep the season series and improve to 12-10 overall and 7-3 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Jaguars drop to 7-14 and 1-7.

South Alabama was down as many as 12 in the first half and surged to take the lead late in the contest but was unable to overcome Hagins' late bucket.

"I thought we started the game really timid and came out in a non-attacking way," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "It was really the opposite of how we wanted to start. We got down early and then had a couple of guys just not really buying in to what we want to do, so they had to sit there in the first half and think about it. In the second half we started moving the ball. We did some really good things."

Hagins sparked a late 6-0 run that rallied the Trojans back from a 54-51 deficit with 3:18 left in the game. Mareik Isom got a tip-in to get within 54-53, then Hagins drilled a triple from the right wing to put the Trojans on top for good.

UALR forced a turnover on South Alabama's next possession, then got a key offensive rebound that allowed Hagins to make 1 of 2 at the free-throw line to extend the lead to 57-54 with 37.1 seconds left.

Jaguar senior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) made a jumper to make it a one-point game again but Hagins responded with two more at the charity stripe. Junior Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) dunked home two more points at the 15.7 mark, but UALR converted only 1 of 2 at the line on the other end to set up USA's final possession.

Allen tried a floater in the lane that hit the front of the rim and was just short. Hagins added the final two points of the contest with 0.9 seconds left.

"What we were trying to do was run a very similar play to what we did in the previous one where Barrington came off a high-ball screen and dumped it down to Mychal for the dunk," Graves said. "Really the same alignment, we were trying to play out of that alignment and Barrington (Stevens) got caught on the sideline, made a drive and kick and Antoine drove it again and tried to make a play. You can't fault the kid there for trying to drive it and attack. We didn't want to settle for a three-point shot. We wanted to attack and unfortunately the ball didn't go in for us."

Arkansas-Little Rock won the rebounding battle 37-32 on the strength of 18 offensive rebounds that led to 20 second-chance points. South Alabama also shot just 52.9 percent from the free-throw line, including 37.5 percent in the second half.

"The two things that, when it got down to crunch time in those last six or seven minutes with the game on the line, we failed to make free throws, step up and make free throws and we allowed them to get too many offensive rebounds and second-chance points there late," Graves said.

UALR took control in the first half on an 11-0 run over a four-minute span on contributions from six different players and took advantage of three USA turnovers, with two coming 30 seconds apart.

The Jaguars found themselves down 10 early in the second half but battled back and put together a 15-4 run largely on the back of Allen. He hit a layup and a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions, then freshman Ken Williams (Manvel, Texas) nailed a triple on the Jags' next trip down the floor to pull within two.

After a layup from Hagins, Allen made it three straight 3-pointers then made both attempts at the line to give the Jaguars their first lead of the game.

The two teams were separated by no more than four points in the final 13:53.

Hagins came off the bench to score his 18 points and Will Neighbour added a game-high 23 on 6 of 8 shooting from the floor and 9 of 10 at the charity stripe.

Allen and fellow senior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) led the Jaguars with 14 points each. Williams dropped in 10 on three 3-pointers.

The Jaguars head to Atlanta to play Georgia State Monday, in a rescheduled contest that was postponed on Thursday due to icy road conditions.

NOTES: Arkansas-Little Rock started the game with a 2-0 lead after two free throws due to South Alabama dunking in pregame warmups… Rubit had his three-game double-double streak against UALR snapped with nine rebounds… Rubit moved into 18th place in Sun Belt history and jumped up to fourth place in the school record books with 1,734 points … He also made his 600th career field goal tonight… The Jags are 0-12 overall and 0-7 in league play when scoring less than 66 points… USA's 20-15 field goal-to-assist ratio is a season best… After going 2-for-10 from 3-point land in the first half, the Jags went 7-for-15 in the second; the team finished 9-for-25 (36.0%) for the game… Sophomore Barrington Stevens (Allen, Texas) dished out a game-high four assists with no turnovers.

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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