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MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama seniors Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) and Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) combined for 42 points to close out the 2013-14 season with a 78-73 defeat of Texas-Arlington Saturday at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars finished the year with four wins in their last seven outings for an 11-20 overall record and 5-13 mark in the Sun Belt Conference. The Mavericks go into the Sun Belt Tournament at 14-16 and 9-9.

"Well first and foremost, congratulations to our two seniors, Antoine Allen and Augustine Rubit," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "Even though we didn't play in the conference tournament, they hung tough and we finished the season with two wins. What a way to go out."

Rubit recorded his 54th career double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds—14 and 10 in the second half alone—and Allen poured in 16 of his game-high 24 points in the first half.

"We had an off-night, and offensively, we didn't shoot the ball very well," Texas-Arlington head coach Scott Cross said. "We had too much dribbling, we didn't pass the ball around and we didn't shoot enough. We didn't have an answer for Augustine Rubit; he was on a tear there early in the second half, and that was the difference in the game."

Allen hit five 3-pointers and grabbed a season-best seven rebounds. The 24 points are the second-most in his career.

"I think this is arguably Antoine's best game that he has played all season," Graves noted. "I was really proud of his effort. I thought he played more within himself tonight than he did the entire season so that's a really big positive."

In addition to Rubit adding to his school-record double-double total, he blocked three shots to end his career with multiple rejections in his last seven games. After halftime he went 5-for-9 from the floor and grabbed four offensive rebounds.

"I thought in the second half that Augustine showed why he is one of the best players of all time in this league," Graves said.

After Texas-Arlington scored eight unanswered points that stretched over each side of halftime, including the first two of the second half, South Alabama hit back with 12 in a row to go up nine, getting a four-point play from freshman Ken Williams (Manvel, Texas), a three-point play from Rubit and five points from junior Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.), capped off with a thunderous dunk.

The Mavericks used the next four minutes to whittle the lead back down to a tie score at 50-50 with a 13-4 run, but a dunk from freshman Georgi Boyanov (Lovech, Bulgaria) jumpstarted a 16-4 burst to give USA its largest lead of the contest at 70-58 with 3:35 to play.

Ammons and sophomore Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas) each contributed a triple during the run and Ammons finished it off with another dunk.

"Early in the year we didn't have that second burst," Graves said. "We never got to that. We would hit a wall and just completely fall apart. To see the growth and progress this team has made throughout the season, I think the last couple weeks we were playing some pretty good basketball."

UTA refused to go away and scored eight of the next nine points and a 3-pointer from Reger Dowell cut the margin down to four with 49 seconds left, but despite doing just 3 of 8 at the charity stripe in the final minute, the Jaguars held on.

South Alabama shot 51.9 percent from the floor in the second half, an improvement on their 28.6 percent performance before halftime. Ammons went 5-for-5 on field goals after intermission for 13 points, and the Jaguars tied their season high with 17 assists for the game.

"Then you look at the stat sheet and I think for the season 17 assists on 24 field goals might be the best ratio we've had all year," said Graves. "Add that to the fact that we only turned it over seven times to a team that really pressed pretty much the entire game. I think we're slowly making some steps in the right way and we need to get a lot better. There's no question about that, but we're going to enjoy this nice win at the end of the season and worry about the other stuff later."

Ammons and Williams totaled 13 points apiece, with Ammons adding a season-high-tying three blocks. Stevens dished out five assists with just one turnover.

Dowell, the Sun Belt's leading scorer (20.5 ppg) and 3-point shooter (3.3 pg) coming into the contest, was held to 11 points on 2 of 17 shooting overall and 1 of 11 from beyond the arc.

Brandon Edwards paced the Mavericks with 18 points and eight rebounds.

NOTES: Rubit ends his career in USA's top five in points (1,917, 2nd), field goals made (673, 5th), field goals attempted (1,360, 3rd), free throws made (550, 1st), free throws attempted (763, 1st), rebounds (1,183, 1st), rebounding average (10.0, 3rd), blocks (139, 3rd), double-doubles (54, 1st) and games played (118, T-2nd)… He recorded a double-double in his first career game and final game, with 52 in between… Rubit's seven-game multiple-block streak ties the longest by a Jaguar in the last 20 years (Kelvin Cato 1993-94)… Allen's career at South Alabama started with a 21-point outing in a 76-71 win at No. 25/24 Florida State last season… Freshman Aakim Saintil finished the year with 15 assists and just one turnover in his last six games… The Jaguars won for the first time this year when trailing at halftime (1-14, 1-10 SBC)… USA's 17-7 assist-turnover ratio tonight is a season best and the 17-24 assist-field goal ratio is the second best this year… Allen's career 3-point total of 108 ranks 11th in school history… Williams caps his freshman season with 55 triples, most for any USA rookie ever… The Jaguars' team total of 241 treys rank third in the school record books… Wins in the last two games keeps South Alabama from tying the school record for losses in a season (21).

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).

—USA—