Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. – Junior Rodrick Sikes scored 26 points and sophomore Josh Ajayi added 24 and 11 rebounds to lead the University of South Alabama men's basketball team to an 83-77 win over Appalachian State Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars (11-9, 4-3 Sun Belt) rallied from down eight in the second half and scored the final six points of the contest to record the 800th win in program history.

Sikes, who scored all 17 of his second-half points after the 8:09 mark, recorded 14 in a row in a 4:39 stretch, and the last two gave the Jags a 77-75 lead with 1:38 remaining.

App State (8-12, 3-4) answered with a layup on the other end, but Ajayi broke the tie for good with 44.0 seconds left, and Sikes and freshman Herb McGee combined for four free throws in the last 24.2 seconds.

GAME FACTS
- South Alabama never led in the first half; Appalachian State jumped out to a 10-2 advantage and led by as many as nine on four occasions before taking a 45-40 lead into intermission
- McGee contributed a pair of 3-pointers in 10 unanswered points for USA's first lead of the contest early in the second half
- Freshman John Pettway hit a short jumper to put the Jags up 60-55, but the Mountaineers scored nine in a row – seven from O'Showen Williams – to regain the lead
- Sikes began his run of 14 straight points at the 6:17 mark with three free throws; after Craig Hinton nailed a triple on the other end, Sikes responded with a '3' of his own to put the Jaguars back on top 71-69
- Griffin Kinney knotted the score at 71-71, but Sikes converted twice at the line and added a layup for a four-point advantage with 3:09 to play
- The Mountaineers converted back-to-back buckets to tie the score again, but Sikes finished his scoring run with a jumper on USA's next trip down the floor
- Kinney accounted for App State's final points of the night on a basket with 1:16 left; Ajayi nailed a jumper 32 seconds later to start South Alabama's game-ending run
- McGee joined Sikes and Ajayi in the double-digit club with 12 and a game-high six assists

NOTES
- South Alabama is 800-627 in 50 seasons of basketball
- Sikes and Ajayi also combined for two 20-point performances earlier this year against Stetson
- Sikes went 13 for 14 at the free-throw line; the 13 conversions are tied for 12th in school history, and tied for second in Mitchell Center history
- Sikes has scored 20 or more in a game six times this season
- Sophomore Trhae Mitchell tied his career high with four blocks
- Ajayi's 24 points are his most in a double-double since pouring in 27 against Florida International on Nov. 18, 2016
- Ajayi has five double-doubles this season, and double-doubles in back-to-back games for the first time in his career
- The Jaguars held Ronshad Shabazz, the Sun Belt's fourth-leading scorer at 19.7 per game, to just three points on 1-for-14 shooting
- App State went 10 for 21 from 3-point land; that ties the most 3-pointers allowed by South Alabama this season, and is the highest 3-point percentage against in 2017-18
- After starting the season 0-7 when trailing at halftime, the Jaguars have won their last two games when down at intermission
- Sikes has scored in double-digit points in his last 19 games, and has recorded at least 15 in nine straight outings
- Sikes is averaging a league-best 21.6 points in conference games
- South Alabama's comeback was its largest of the season, and tied the biggest rally in the second half
- The Jags won when allowing 70 or more for the first time this year

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Matthew Graves
Opening statement: "Obviously extremely excited and proud of the team. They did a tremendous job. The crowd was absolutely awesome. We need more and more people here in the Mitchell Center. It was great to see a big crowd. I felt like in the first half we were scoring the ball well, but we were really struggling defensively. We couldn't get them off the 3-point line, and we were fouling too much. In the second half, I thought our guys did a great job of adjusting a little bit and, we put more pressure on the basketball. They only had two turnovers at halftime; we forced 10 in the second half. Defense is completely a team thing, but I would be remiss not to single out Trhae Mitchell tonight. He was guarding [Ronshad] Shabazz, their all-league guy who is averaging 20 a game. He absolutely handled him and made his life miserable. Trhae started it and everybody else contributed. I'm just so proud of the many different guys that played well for us tonight."

On difficulty to focus guys with big weekend coming up: "Friday after practice we took about 10 minutes after film and talked about how special this weekend really is to honor a lot of people that have played here. The first thing when I told them we were wearing the throwback uniforms, they were like little kids – what color, what's it look like? I told them, that's the stuff I'm talking about. That doesn't matter. What matters is, can we play well enough to inspire the fans that have come to watch us play to come back again? You inspire those fans by being great teammates, by diving on the floor, by taking charges, by making the extra pass. Our guys were absolutely phenomenal in those areas tonight. I hope here in a couple of weeks when we get back to the Mitchell Center, we see a lot more fans coming because this team is really starting to figure out a lot of things, and I'm just so proud of them."

On Rodrick Sikes down the stretch: "We really challenged him. If you ask Rodrick, I absolutely chewed him out at halftime. I was very disappointed with how he was defending. He was getting absolutely lit up. In the second half, he started a little slow, got his fourth foul, but this is the reason I love to coach that kid. He takes coaching, he takes the criticism, and he came back and absolutely willed us on the offensive end. The guys were looking for him. He stepped up and made big shots, big free throws. That's the kind of toughness we need. He showed a great deal of toughness there down the stretch for us."

On free throws winning games: "I know sometimes it looks like we don't practice free throws but at the same time, it is a mental thing. Our guys were mentally locked in tonight. They stepped up, took their time and knocked down free throws. (If) you make 22 of 25 free throws, you're having a really good night from the free throw line, and that's a big separator."

On Josh Ajayi's double-double: "I'll have to go back and look, but I think this might be the best Josh has played in back-to-back games during his career at South Alabama. Tonight, he showed what he's capable of doing and what we've seen all along. He's more than capable of being an all-league performer. These past two games, there's no way he cannot be player of the week. He absolutely was a man out there. He played possessed. He rebounded the ball. He scored around the rim. Josh is starting to come into his own. That's the effort and consistency we need night in and night out."

UP NEXT
South Alabama opens a three-game road trip Thursday at Louisiana. Tip-off is set for 7:15 p.m.

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—