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MOBILE, Ala. – A late Georgia Southern run helped cap off a 50-point second half as the Eagles pulled away for an 81-73 victory over the University of South Alabama men's basketball team Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The Eagles win their third straight in the Sun Belt Conference to improve to 10-3 overall and 3-1 in league play. The Jaguars fall to 4-11 and 2-3.

Georgia Southern shot 57.1 percent (16-28) in the second half—52.8 percent for the contest—and Jelani Hewitt scored 17 of his team-high 22 points after intermission.

"In the second half I think a couple of things happened: I think their experience, they have five seniors and three fifth-year seniors, they've got man's bodies. I think that wore on us," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "The rebounding totals basically are even, but we gave up six offensive rebounds in the second half, (and) then their (25) points off turnovers. We had too many what we call live-ball turnovers, where they were able to run out and get some easy baskets. We struggled there to score for a little bit. We have to be a team that if we score 73 points, we have to be able to win that game. What's concerning is that for whatever reason, whether it's fatigue or maybe we need to look at playing some different guys or whatever we can, 50 points in a half is a recipe for disaster. We got beat by a better team tonight."

The Eagles, who trailed by 10 in the first half, used a 14-2 run spanning halftime—with Hewitt contributing nine of those points, all off 3-pointers—to turn a six-point deficit into a six-point advantage early in the second period. The Jags only attempted one shot during the run and committed four turnovers.

South Alabama didn't quit and scored the next six points to tie the game at 42-42, then fought off another attempt by Georgia Southern to take control by outscoring the Eagles 10-4 over a 4:17 stretch—getting points from five different players—to pull within 61-60 at the 6:00 mark.

However, GS responded with a 13-3 spurt, shooting 5-for-6 from the floor and forcing two turnovers, to take control as Hewitt scored the final four points in the run.

Hewitt went 4-for-7 from the floor—with two 3-pointers—and shot 7-for-10 from the foul line without a turnover in the final 20 minutes.

"I think our younger guards got tired," Graves said. "We didn't have as much pressure on the basketball. We need to do a better job of not allowing them to catch it in the operating area. When (Hewitt) came off those ball screens, we just didn't have as much of a presence on him as we did in the first half. We were really in tune and guarding really well in the first half. Again, I think we flat out wore down. To their credit, they are good players. Jelani Hewitt is a top 15, 20 points-per-game guy in the country. He is able to go on a roll like that."

The Jaguars' Ken Williams (Houston, Texas) led all scorers with 23 points, converting 7 of 15 from the floor and 4 of 8 from 3-point land. He also dished out two assists with no turnovers.

Three other Jags had 10 points apiece: senior Dionte Ferguson (Prattville, Ala.), junior Barrington Stevens (Allen, Texas) and freshman Taishaun Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.).

The Jaguar posts, who combined for 47 points Thursday against Appalachian State, had just 24 tonight.

"I think we got away from getting the ball inside," Graves noted. "You look at Abdul (Lewis) and Dionte, (they were) 6-for-10 from the field. They need to get more shots. We didn't get them enough touches in the second half, and that's something we have to go back, revisit, talk to and get that corrected heading to Texas State next week."

Stevens shared game-high honors with five assists and sophomore Georgi Boyanov (Lovech, Bulgaria) had nine rebounds.

The Jags jumped on the Eagles early—up 12-2 on four 3-pointers through the first five minutes—and led for the entire first half, but GS finished the period on an 8-2 run to go into the break trailing 34-31.

"I thought we did a great job to start the game," said Graves. "We were in attack mode. We were throwing the ball inside out. We had three post touches and threw it back out and got three 3s off of that. We were in a good rhythm. We kept them off the glass. So in the first half I was really pleased with our effort and how we came out and played."

Williams scored 12 before intermission, shooting 4-for-5 from distance, part of a 6-for-9 effort as a team, but the outside touch cooled after that, and the Jags went just 1-for-8 behind the arc in the second half.

In addition to Hewitt's 22 points, Curtis Diamond came off the bench to tally 19, thanks to four 3-pointers. Trent Wiedeman had 12 points and nine rebounds, and Mike Hughes added 11 points and five assists.

South Alabama goes on the road for its next two games, starting with Texas State Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.

NOTES: Georgia Southern breaks a four-game losing streak dating back to 1980 to South Alabama; the Eagles' last win in the series came in 1978… Williams is averaging 24.5 points and 4.5 three-pointers in his last two games, is the first Jaguar to have back-to-back 20-point outings since Augustine Rubit last February, and his 49 total points are the most by a USA player over a two-game stretch since Rubit had 56 in December 2013 … The Jags are allowing 56.0 points in their last two second halves… Georgia Southern turned 16 Jaguar turnovers into 25 points, the most by a USA opponent this season… Stevens is averaging 5.8 assists over his last four games and has just seven turnovers over that span… Ferguson was held to 10 points, but went 6-for-6 from the foul line and is shooting 90.1 percent (20-for-22) at the stripe in his last five outings… GS's bench outscored USA's 29-11 thanks to Diamond's 19.

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—