Game Notes

MOBILE, Ala. – With just three regular-season games left and fighting to qualify for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, the University of South Alabama men's basketball team welcomes league-leader Louisiana-Monroe to the Mitchell Center for a Thursday night clash.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Fans can listen to the game on 710 AM and iHeartRadio.com, and watch it on USAJaguars.com. In-game updates will be provided via live stats on the USA home page and Twitter at @SouthAlaMBK.

Louisiana-Monroe sits in a three-way tie for the top spot in the conference at 12-4 with Georgia Southern and Georgia State, and is 18-9 overall. The Warhawks defeated the Jaguars 67-61 in January.

"I'm very excited to play a team at the top of our league, and even more excited that we have them at home," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "Whether you're playing for a tournament spot or anything else, it's an opportunity to play in front of your fans. We need to protect our home court; we've not done a great job at that this year and it's one more opportunity to play at home.

"Even though UL Monroe is coming off a loss, they're playing really well. They have a lot of length and size that has been bothersome to us, but we're looking to get back on track. The biggest thing with them is we have to get off to a better start. We dug ourselves such a deep hole getting down by 18 (in Monroe) and trying to rally all the way back. That's tough to do against one of the top teams in this league."

South Alabama enters Thursday with a 7-10 mark in the SBC—tied for sixth in the standings—and 9-19 overall, and is coming off an 0-2 road trip to Georgia State and Georgia Southern.

After putting up a season-low 51 points in the loss to GSU, the Jags rebounded to put up 74 at Georgia Southern, with five players in double-figure scoring. Sophomore Ken Williams had a team-high 18 points and freshman Abdul Lewis recorded his second-ever double-double with 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.

"With Georgia State to Georgia Southern, it was more style of play," Graves noted. "Georgia State plays all zone and Georgia Southern basically played a switching man-to-man, so we were able to do a much better job attacking a man-to-man defense than we did against a zone. (Playing against a zone) is something we've struggled with a lot this year and we're continuing to work on that. I'm anticipating ULM playing a little more zone than they've shown in the past few games. We need to be prepared and execute at a much higher level against a zone defense on Thursday."

The USA offense will need to stay hot as it will be going up against one of the toughest defenses in the Sun Belt. ULM leads the conference in 3-point defense (28.6%) and is second in scoring defense (60.5) and field goal defense (37.9), and has allowed just one opponent to score 70 or more since Jan. 8.

"They play a lot of low-possession games; they aren't in a big hurry on the offensive end of the floor," Graves said. "They'll be patient, look to take good shots and they don't turn the ball over. When you do that, it allows you to set your defense. It's really hard to score on them in transition. In any good defense, that's where it starts; you've got to have a great offense. When you don't turn the ball over and take really good shots, teams aren't getting easy baskets in transition. When you can get easy baskets in transition, that gives you more confidence and allows you to get to the free-throw line, and you snowball from there. ULM does a great job of taking care of the ball, and thus, they get back and defend very well in transition. I think that's a huge key to their defensive efforts."

UL Monroe has two players averaging double-digit points in Tylor Ongwae and Majok Deng, both of whom were crucial in the win earlier this season. Ongwae, who is ninth in the league with 14.6 points per game, had a double-double with 16 points and 13 boards, while Deng, at 10.1 ppg, had a team-best 17 points and eight rebounds.

"I think their size and length stick out the most, but they have the ability to play on the perimeter and move," Graves said. "They're very athletic for their size. They're not overly strong, but they have the ability to play on the perimeter and move at 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-10, and their wingspans are even greater than that. They'll make it difficult on some of our guards that will be trying to defend them.

"ULM does a great job of defending the perimeter jumpshot with their length and their athleticism. They can help and recover just a split-second quicker than a lot of people do because of their length. They really play to their strengths and they're very well-coached and disciplined on the defensive end of the floor."

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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