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SAN MARCOS, Texas – The University of South Alabama men's basketball team shot just 29.6 percent in the second half for 21 points in a 68-57 defeat to Texas State Saturday afternoon at Strahan Coliseum.

Despite the loss, the Jaguars have still qualified for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and will be the No. 8 seed against No. 5 seed Georgia Southern on Thursday at 5 p.m.

South Alabama led by as many as nine points in the first half but was only up two at halftime, then gave up an 11-0 run midway through the second half.

"In the first half, we were physical and defended well, especially in the first 18 minutes," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "I thought Barrington (Stevens III) did an outstanding job on (Ethan) Montalvo, making his catches hard. He only got loose for one 3. Overall, our defensive intensity was pretty solid in the first half.

"In the second half, I thought as our offense started to falter, our defense started slipping. We gave up some offensive rebounds and we started forcing shots. We needed to trust our teammates and move the basketball more."

The Jaguars used an 8-0 run to flip a four-point deficit into a four-point advantage, and led 49-45 with 10:02 after a triple from sophomore Shaq Calhoun (Rome, Ga.).

Texas State scored the next 11 points in three minutes to take its largest lead of the game. The Bobcats made five of their seven attempts from the floor and got nine points from Cameron Naylor and Ojai Black.

On the other end of the floor, South Alabama went 0 for 4 with a turnover, and grabbed just one rebound.

"It was difficult because we had used a timeout, then we dove on the floor and used another timeout, so we only had one timeout during that stretch and I was trying to hold on to it, but it just became a point where we couldn't get a stop," Graves stated.

USA got within five with 4:05 left but TXST scored eight of the next 10 points and held the Jags without a field goal for almost four minutes.

In the final 10 minutes of the contest, South Alabama shot 2 for 14 from the floor – 0 for 4 from distance – and was outrebounded 17-9. The 21 second-half points tie a season low.

"We got in a funk and the ball stopped moving, and we went into a little too much one-on-one," Graves said. "When you're playing a team that does a great job defensively being physical and getting over to the help side, you have to be willing to make that extra pass, and sometimes, even the extra, extra pass to get a great shot. We just didn't do that in the second half when things got tough for us."

The Bobcats got 40 of their 68 points from Naylor and Emani Gant, who scored 22 and 18, respectively. Gant recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds, while Naylor fell one board short with nine.

"Gant is an all-league player, and I thought we did a pretty good job on him for the most part," Graves said. "He probably had six points late when we were pressing and trapping, but Naylor really stepped up and played well. We just didn't have an answer for him."

Junior Nick Stover (Los Angeles, Calif.) was the only Jaguar in double-digits with 10. Junior Ken Williams (Houston, Texas) had nine points and team-high totals of eight rebounds and five assists. The eight boards ties his career high.

NOTES: South Alabama is 0-9 in the state of Texas since a win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the 2011-12 season; USA is a combined 0-6 at Texas-Arlington and Texas State since the pair joined the Sun Belt in 2013-14… Williams recorded his 100th assist of the season, becoming just the second player in the last eight seasons to hit triple digits… He also had his seven-game double-digit streak snapped; he was averaging 20.4 points over that stretch… USA is 1-5 (0-4 Sun Belt) when Williams scores nine points or fewer… Williams is averaging 5.7 assists in his last three games… He moved into a tie for 12th at South Alabama for career free throws with 250… One game after allowing Texas-Arlington to go 12 for 28 from 3-point land, the Jags permitted the Bobcats to convert 2 of 9 (22.2%) from distance… Stover has reached double-digit points in each of the last three games, averaging 13.0 points during that span.

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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