Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama junior Rodrick Sikes led all scorers with 27 points and the men's basketball team survived a last-second shot to edge Georgia Southern 69-67 Sunday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

A layup from Quan Jackson with 46.5 seconds left gave Georgia Southern (10-4, 1-1 Sun Belt) a 67-66 lead, but senior Nick Davis regained the lead with a putback with 29.5 on the clock. Jackson missed a 3-pointer on the Eagles' next possession, and after a free throw from USA sophomore Herb McGee, Jackson was off the mark again as time expired.

Sikes, the only Jaguar (8-6, 2-0) in double-digit points, hit five 3-pointers and went 8 for 9 from the free-throw line, including all three attempts with 1:40 left to break a 63-63 tie.

GAME FACTS
- The largest lead for either team in the final 18 minutes of the game was four
- Georgia Southern missed its first seven shots and fell behind 16-3 in the early going, but hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to only trail at intermission 39-35
- Sikes opened the second half with a triple, but the Eagles scored the next eight points to take their first lead of the contest
- The score was tied seven times and changed hands eight times in the second half
- After GS's Jake Allsmiller and sophomore Jordan Andrews traded 3-pointers, the Eagles' Mike Hughes knotted the score at 63-63 with 3:18 left with a free throw
- Sikes went 3 for 3 at the line at the 1:40 mark to go up 66-63, but Tookie Brown converted twice at the line 15 seconds later, then Jackson followed with a layup to retake the lead
- Jackson led Georgia Southern with 14 points, and Hughes and Brown added 13 and 12, respectively.

NOTES
- South Alabama is 2-0 in the Sun Belt for the first time since 2012-13
- The Jags' 8-6 record before New Year's Day is their best since 2011-12
- USA's 34.4 shooting percentage is the lowest in a win since Feb. 11, 2010
- The Jaguars set a new season low for 3-point percentage at 24.2
- South Alabama had 15 second-chance points, tied for its second-most of the season
- Sophomore Trhae Mitchell blocked three shots for the second consecutive game, and shared team-high honors in rebounds with sophomore Josh Ajayi with eight
- Sikes has scored double-digit points in 13 consecutive games, and is averaging 30.7 points and 5.7 treys in his last three outings
- GS won the rebounding battle 51-43, and had 16 offensive rebounds; both the 51 rebounds and 16 offensive boards are the most by a USA opponent this season
- The Jags are 8-2 this season when leading at halftime and 6-2 when scoring fewer than 70 points
- Ajayi was held to single-digit points for the first time in nine games with six, but he scored his 500th career point
- Brown's 12 points are his fewest against South Alabama in his career (6 games)

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Matthew Graves
Opening statement: "Obviously, I'm very excited and proud of our team protecting our home court. (We're) 2-0 in league play, it's hard to win in league play, but especially when you go on the road it's hard to win. Every game at home matters. Our guys are starting to value that and appreciate that. We played really good defensively. Obviously they got a shot there late – that's a great set that they ran. I thought we rebounded the ball when we needed to in crucial situations. Rodrick stepped up and made three free throws there, and we held on."

On the confidence of the team: "Rodrick is obviously scoring the ball really well for us. We need him to continue to do that and take good shots. There's some shots you would like to take back. When a shooter has that much confidence and he knows that he doesn't have to worry about coming out of the game when he takes a bad one every now and then, as long as he guards, we're going to be okay. They took Josh away tonight. They did a good job defending Josh, but Josh really embraced that. He got eight defensive rebounds for us inside. When you look through the balance of scoring, several guys stepped up and made shots at different times. Jordan Andrews made a big '3' there late after they hit a '3.' Our guys are gaining more confidence, and I think that is going to continue as we go out on the road."

On this being something he saw coming on Rodrick: "There's no way I think anybody saw that. I don't mean that in a negative way to Rodrick. We felt when we recruited him that he would be a double-figure scorer for us, you know 10 to 12 points per game. To his credit, he's really embraced our system, especially defensively, and that kid is always in the gym. He finds a way to get a manager to rebound for him or he gets the gun out and he gets shots up. He's a product of hard work and getting extra reps in. I'm so happy for him. He's earned everything he's gotten so far."

On the difference in getting a win like this compared to previous seasons: "The biggest difference has been our defense. Our identity is on the defensive end of the floor. When you go through the statistics, we're in the top three in our league in a lot of different categories defensively. We probably slipped a little bit tonight in defensive rebounding, but we're doing a much better job on the glass this year. We're being more physical getting to the ball. I think you can just see guys getting more comfortable in our system. The rotation, we're starting to figure out when to sub guys and who's playing well with who. As a coaching staff, we're growing with the guys. It's going to be a lot of fun this next two and a half or three months."

UP NEXT
South Alabama travels to Texas State on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. tip.

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).

Join the Jaguar Athletic Fund (JAF) Priority Fund, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to the Priority Fund directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give

—USA—