MOBILE, Ala. – Savannah Jones scored 11 of her 15 points in the fourth quarter on Wednesday, helping the University of South Alabama women's basketball team finish with 28 in the period on the way to a 77-68 come-from-behind, non-conference victory over Southern Mississippi at the Mitchell Center.

The sophomore guard hit 4-of-5 shots from the floor over the final 10 minutes including all three of her shots from beyond the three-point arc as the Jaguars improved to 2-0 on the season.  Her three with three-and-a-half minutes to go put South up 66-65, and when she hit another with just under a minute left it extended the Jag advantage to six points.

Damaya Telemaque, making her first career start, led the Jaguars with 17 points, while both Shaforia Kines and Antoinette Lewis recorded 15 and Christen Carter supplied 12.  Lewis just missed a double-double after grabbing a game-high-tying nine rebounds.

Camille Anderson paced the Golden Eagles (2-1) with 18 points after knocking down 3-of-6 three-point attempts, while Alarie Maze scored 17 — missing only two of her 10 shots from the field — and added nine boards.

GAME FACTS
- A 10-0 run by the Golden Eagles over a nearly two-and-a-half minute span in the opening period helped USM build a 20-14 edge at the end of the quarter.
- The Jaguars held USM without a field goal for three-and-a-half minutes midway through the second quarter, but after going ahead 28-27 the Golden Eagles posted seven unanswered points over the final 67 seconds for a 34-28 halftime lead.
- Both teams shot better than 75 percent from the field in the third quarter as USM maintained its six-point advantage, 55-49, at the end of the period.
- There were five lead changes in the final period until Jones' second three-pointer put USA up one; after the Golden Eagles tied the contest by making the second of two free throws 20 seconds later, the Jags scored 12 of the final 15 points.
- USM connected on less than 30 percent of its attempts while being outscored by 15 points in the final period.
- South was 17-of-24 from the floor after the intermission, ending the game shooting 50.9% overall.

NOTES
- The Jaguars have now won back-to-back meetings between the two schools and hold a 20-12 advantage in the all-time series.
- Telemaque was 7-of-12 from the field to score in double digits for the second time in as many games her first season on the collegiate level.
- Kines has scored 10 or more points in 10 of the Jaguars' last 12 contests dating back to last season.
- Carter not only set a new career high in scoring —her previous best was five points — she reached double figures for the first time in 36 career appearances.
- It was the eighth time in her career Lewis has led the Jags in rebounding.
- It was the fourth occasion during Jaguar head coach Terry Fowler's tenure that the team has had five or more individuals in double digits scoring.
- South's starters accounted for all but four of the team's points on the night.
- USA shot better than 50 percent from the field for the first time since accomplishing the feat in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament last year against Troy.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Terry Fowler
Opening statement: "I'm just so excited for our team.  We were fighting and scrapping in the first half after having to make a lineup change right before the game started.  They went on a 6-0 run to end the half, but other than that the stats in the first half show it was an even game.  In the second half we came out and got the ball inside, Demaya did a great job, and then CC [Carter] made big shot after big shot when we needed it.  Thank goodness we made free throws down the stretch to close it out.  I was proud of our effort, and the home crowd was awesome.  Any time we can win in the Mitchell Center we're excited about that."
On coming back from multiple deficits in the game: "We hadn't faced adversity this year, but we've been talking about it the last week.  How are we going to respond when that happens?  Tonight we answered the bell.  I'm just so excited that we were able to make shots, got stops when we needed to, and because they sent all five to the glass we were able to get some easy transition baskets.  That helped loosen it up a little bit, then we had clutch three-point shots down the stretch from Savannah and Sha [Kines].  We just made basket after basket thanks to CC, Antoinette and Demaya."
On the game atmosphere: "That was awesome, that's what we're trying to get here.  I know they [the crowd] made a difference in the ball game.  Our kids fed off of that energy, I know when Savannah hit that shot in the corner the place went crazy.  Our kids love playing in front of the home crowd, hopefully we gave them something to come back for."

Junior F Christen Carter
On the importance of the win: "This was a huge win for us, it was the first time that our team really faced some true adversity and I'm really proud of how we responded.  We were able to find the open player, get easy buckets in transition and work together on the defensive end to get stops, and we made our free throws down the stretch."
On her performance in the game: "My teammates were able to find me on the offensive end on a lot of baseline cuts, they did a god job of getting the ball to me which allowed me to make my shots in rhythm."

Up next: The Jaguars will go on the road for the first time this season to play Central Arkansas at 2 p.m. (CST) on Saturday.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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

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