MOBILE, Ala. – Jacksonville jumped out to a big early lead and held the University of South Alabama men's basketball team to 24.7 percent shooting in a 71-48 win Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.

The Dolphins (1-4) got double-doubles from Jace Hogan (15 points and 12 rebounds) and David Bell (11 and 11) and blocked 12 shots to tie the Mitchell Center record.

JU sprinted to an 18-4 lead through the first 11 minutes of the contest thanks to a 2-for-20 shooting start by USA. The Jaguars scored the next eight points but the Dolphins ended the half on a 15-4 run to lead 33-16 at the break.

South Alabama (2-2) used a 19-5 burst to get within 44-35 with 10:14 left in the game, and again got to nine on a three-point play from junior Trhae Mitchell. A David Bell dunk on the other end started a 20-3 Jacksonville run to put the game away.

GAME FACTS
- The Jaguars missed 18 of their first 20 shots, but the Dolphins didn't fare much better on the other end, going 5 for 17 to open the contest; however, they held a 19-11 rebounding edge and went 8 for 9 at the free-throw line while the Jags didn't get to the line once during that span
- Junior Abdul Dial finally snapped the drought with a layup at the 8:39 mark and junior Herb McGee recorded the Jaguars' next six points to get to 18-12
- South Alabama would hit just twice more from the field the rest of the half while Jacksonville made four of its five attempts and went 7 for 8 from the charity stripe
- After six unanswered JU points to start the second half opened up a 23-point lead, USA went to work, outscoring the Dolphins 19-5 over a seven-minute stretch to cut the margin down to 44-35
- Mitchell scored five of the team's seven points in a two-minute span, the final three coming with 8:22 left for a 49-40 deficit
- South Alabama would converted once from the floor over the next 6 ½ minutes while Jacksonville reeled off a 20-3 scoring burst
- Hogan and Aamahne Santos shared team-high honors with 15 points each, with Santos pouring in 13 in the second half alone
- Jalyn Hinton blocked seven shots to go along with his 12 points
- McGee and Mitchell recorded 16 and 14 points, respectively

NOTES
- Jacksonville snapped a seven-game losing streak to South Alabama, tying the longest for either school in the series
- Tonight was the 60th meeting between the two schools, second-most in school history (Western Kentucky, 66)
- Hinton's seven blocks are tied for second-most in Mitchell Center history
- South Alabama's 18.9 shooting percentage and 16 points in the first half are the lowest by the program since a loss to Troy on Feb. 16, 2016
- McGee had 10 of the team's 16 points at halftime and led the team with two steals and two assists apiece
- Junior Josh Ajayi and sophomore R.J. Kelly led the Jags with eight rebounds each
- JU won the rebounding battle 51-38 but USA grabbed a season-high 19 offensive boards

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "I'm as disappointed as I've ever been in my career coaching, to be honest. The responsibility to get these guys excited to play this game and to play with passion and urgency and to play the right way falls on me. I'm the head coach. I take full responsibility for that. I told our guys in the locker room that they're my guys now, so it's my responsibility. Obviously we didn't recruit some of these guys, so maybe I just need to get to know them better to know which buttons to push. I struggle to figure out why we weren't excited to play this game. We obviously didn't deserve to win. We shot 24 percent from the field and 17 percent from 3. Our two leading scorers combined to go 4 for 30. Any time you do that, it's going to be very hard to win. It's just our effort. Our effort and passion to play this game was not where it needed to be. Again, I'm lost because I don't understand how it could be like that, but I do take full responsibility for it."

On tonight's shooting struggles: "It's a lack of focus and a lack of passion. It's not that we're bad shooters. I think we all know that we have some guys who can make shots and who made shots last night. It's just a lack of focus, lack of a competitive edge, and a lack of resiliency. I touched on this last night when we won and I've said it every time: when things go poorly for our team, we don't respond well. Things went poorly early. Our shots weren't going in, whether they were shots in the paint or shots from 3, and we wilted. We do that, and that's been a problem throughout the careers of some of these guys. As the new head coach here, I'm here for a reason. I've got to change that. I'll say it again: it's on me. I've got to change it. I've got to somehow get to these guys and change their perspective about the game of basketball and about competing in general. I've got to get them to a point where we can compete with this team this year."

UP NEXT
South Alabama will take a day off before concluding the Goldie and Herman Ungar Classic Monday night at 7 p.m. against Southeast Missouri.

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

—USA—