Game Notes

Game 23 • South Alabama Jaguars (7-15, 1-8) at Troy Trojans (7-14, 2-7)
February 6, 2014 • 7:30 p.m. • Trojan Arena (5,200) • Troy, Ala.

 THE COACHES
South Alabama
Matthew Graves (Butler, 1998)
Record at USA: 7-15 (1st year)
Overall Record: Same
Record vs. Troy: 0-0

Troy
Phil Cunningham (Campbellsville, 1990)
Record at Troy: 7-14 (1st year)
Overall Record: Same

LAST GAME
South Alabama allowed Georgia State to shoot 63 percent in an 85-65 loss in Atlanta. Troy lost its fifth straight game, 83-73 at home to Arkansas State.

NEXT GAME
The Jaguars host Arkansas State Feb. 13. The Trojans also take a week off before traveling to Western Kentucky.

ON THE AIR
Radio: 105.5 WNSP; Lee Shirvanian (pxp)
On the web: www.wnsp.com (audio)

RANKINGS (through Feb. 4)
USA: #276 RPI (RealTimeRPI), #241 Sagarin
Troy: #277 RPI (RealTimeRPI), #279 Sagarin

THE SERIES
USA leads 15-6.

Current winning streak: South Alabama, 5 wins
Troy's last win in series: 72-59 (2/10/11) in Mobile
Last meeting: South Alabama 53, Troy 49 (3/2/13)
USA's last win at Trojan Arena: 53-49 (3/2/13)
USA's record at Trojan Arena: 1-0
USA's record in Troy: 6-2
USA's road streak: Won 3
USA's longest winning / losing streak in series: 5 / 2

Notes: Despite the in-state rivals being separated by about 170 miles, the two schools have met just 21 times; all but two of the meetings came after Troy joined the Sun Belt in 2005… South Alabama won the two pre-Sun Belt clashes in 1993 and 1995… The Jaguars won the first five games in the series and seven of the first eight… A buzzer-beating shot gave USA a 69-67 victory in Mobile on Jan. 16, 2010… Freddie Goldstein set a new school record with nine 3-pointers in the 2011-12 season at Troy… USA leads the series 2-1 in games played at the Sun Belt Tournament, including an 87-81 victory in 2011-12 in the first round.

OPENING TIP
South Alabama's five-game win streak against Troy is the school's longest active streak against any Sun Belt school.

USA is wrapping up a stretch of three games in six days. The team hosted Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday and played at Georgia State on Monday in a rescheduled game due to snow and ice in Atlanta last week.

The Jags are 1-8 in league play for the first time in school history.

South Alabama has yet to win away from home this season. The Jags are 0-8 in road games and 0-2 at neutral sites. USA has also failed to win when scoring 66 points or fewer.

Georgia State is the first Sun Belt team to score more points against South Alabama than their season average coming in to the game. The first eight opponents were held to at least 4.1 points below their average entering the game, with two held to 10 points or more (WKU 10.3, ULL 12.0).

The Panthers are also just the third team this season—and first from the Sun Belt—to convert better than 50 percent of their field goals against the Jaguars.

Antoine Allen is averaging a team-best 17.0 points in his last three outings, including 19—his most in the 2014 calendar year—Monday at Georgia State. He is shooting 50.0 percent from the floor and 43.5 percent from 3-point land over that span. He ranks seventh in the league with 2.3 triples per game and 13th with a .362 long-range percentage.

Augustine Rubit scored 16 points against Georgia State on 8 of 12 shooting from the field for his 91st double-digit scoring game of his career, third-most in South Alabama history and one shy of Ed Rains in second.

Rubit's 16 points moved him past Kennard Johnson of Western Kentucky into 17th place in Sun Belt history with 1,750. Rubit enters Thursday's game 25 points shy of 16th.

South Alabama failed to block a shot for the first time this season.

Barrington Stevens III is averaging 4.5 assists in his last two games and tied his career high with five Monday at Georgia State. He has posted a positive assist-turnover ratio in 16 of 22 games this season.

The Jags rank at the bottom of the league in assists per game, but have improved in the last five games, particularly on their ratio with made field goals. Since Jan. 16, when South Alabama tied its season high with 17 helpers. the team is averaging 12.4 assists per game, up from 10.4 in the first 17 contests and their assists-to-feld goals ratio has improved from 46.1 to 54.5. In the last three games, the ratio is 58.8, which includes a season-best 15 assists on 20 field goals at Arkansas-Little Rock on Feb. 1