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BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State limited the University of South Alabama men's basketball team to 36 percent shooting from the floor and held the Jaguars to their fewest points of the season in a 64-53 win Thursday night at the Holmes Center.

The Mountaineers win their third straight to improve to 7-10 overall and 4-4 in the Sun Belt Conference, while the Jags drop to 6-13 and 4-5.

"I thought Appalachian State did a great job on their defense, really clogged the lane and forced us to not only take tough, contested 2s, but they limited our ability to get to the offensive glass," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "The lane was really clogged up and they did an excellent job.

"On their offensive end, they had some longer possessions with an emphasis of throwing it into the post and wearing down our bigger guys. We couldn't come up with any defensive rebounds. We're a team that needs to score in transition and we did not do that tonight and it's a credit to Coach (Jim) Fox and his staff. They did a great job of being physical, pounding us and getting second-chance points. They had long possessions where we had to guard. We didn't shoot very well and they had a lot to do with it."

The game hardly resembled the Jan. 8 contest between the two teams that saw South Alabama win 104-95 and put up its most points in over 10 years. USA's 36 percent shooting is its lowest since conference play began Dec. 30 and comes on the heels of a six-game run where the team averaged 80.3 points.

"It was a totally different flow to the game," Graves said. "It was a lot more up-and-down last game and I think they really made a concerted effort to slow it down a little bit. They tried to score real quick out of the initial transition, but if they didn't have that, they did a great job of being patient and running 15 to 20 seconds off the clock and it really wore on our bigs."

Jaguar sophomore Ken Williams (Houston, Texas) led all players with 16 points, but only five came after halftime and none after the 10:45 mark of the second half.

No other Jaguars reached double-digits. Williams dished out two assists and freshman Abdul Lewis (Newark, N.J.) grabbed a team-best eight rebounds.

"They did a good job of being physical on our ball-screens and they did a good job of running our guys off the 3-point line," Graves said. "They made a conscious effort to funnel us towards the middle of the paint. I thought we did a good job of getting to the free-throw line and getting fouled—we had been shooting about 25-to-30 a game over the last six or seven games and we didn't quite get there that much. We settled for some 15-to-17 foot quick 2s. We kind of lost our patience."

App State's Tommy Spagnolo recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Frank Eaves also had 15 points and tallied five assists.

The Mountaineers took control with a 23-7 run midway through the second half after six unanswered points gave the Jaguars a 36-35 lead. Spagnolo scored the first of eight straight for ASU with a 3-pointer, and after a three-point play from sophomore Georgi Boyanov (Lovech, Bulgaria) cut the lead back down to 43-40 with 10:24 left in the contest, two buckets from Jacob Lawson bookended a three-point play from Eaves and the Mountaineers took a 50-40 lead.

A triple from junior Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas) temporarily stopped the bleeding, but App State reeled off another eight points for a commanding 58-43 advantage with 6:28 left in the contest.

Appalachian State made eight of its 11 attempts from the floor during the seven-minute burst, including four of its five 3-point tries while South Alabama converted just 2 of 8 from the field and had four turnovers.

The largest lead for either team in the first half was five points and a layup from Spagnolo with three seconds left was the difference at halftime (30-28).

South Alabama ventures outside of conference play Sunday, hosting NJIT at 2:05 p.m.

NOTES: USA's 53 points ties its fewest of the season (Nov. 22 at Detroit)… Williams had his five-game 20-point scoring streak snapped; he's still averaging 22.7 points in his last six games… The Jaguars have been outrebounded by an average of 9.3 per game in their last four games and lost the rebounding battle tonight 41-30… Williams went without a 3-point field goal (0-5) for the first time since missing all six attempts vs. Arkansas State on Dec. 30; he entered the game ranked third in the league with 2.6 per game and hit at least three in his last five outings.

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—