HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Down 16 points early, the University of South Alabama men's basketball team came back to take the lead but went cold late in a 71-67 defeat to Southern Miss Wednesday night at Reed Green Coliseum.

USM jumped out to a big lead by converting five USA turnovers into 12 points thanks to a 7-for-9 start from the floor, but the Jaguars slowly worked the lead down and took their biggest lead of the contest on a four-point play from Rodrick Sikes with 7:59 left in the contest.

South Alabama went 1 for 7 from the field with four turnovers over the next 7:36 and allowed Southern Miss to go up six with 33 seconds left. Junior Jordan Andrews nailed a '3' with 20.4 seconds remaining to cut the lead in half, and seconds later graduate Kory Holden hit a jumper to trail by two, but after two free throws on the other end, the Jags only managed to get a shot off at the buzzer.

Holden, who was making his season debut, scored a game-high 28 points on eight 3-pointers, one shy of the school record set in 2011-12.

GAME FACTS
- The Jaguars had five turnovers on their first seven possessions in the Golden Eagles' game-opening 17-1 run
- Holden finally stopped the drought with a triple, and the Jags scored 20 of the next 31 points to work the deficit down to 28-21
- South Alabama made seven straight field goals and 8 of 9 in a seven-minute stretch as Holden got hot, but Southern Miss went 7 for 9 on the other end and still led by 10 with 7:37 left before halftime
- Two free throws from junior Josh Ajayi and a triple from Holden started a 15-6 burst over 7:01, capped off with the four-point play from Sikes, to put the Jags up 59-56
- Leonard Harper-Baker answered on the other end with a bucket but neither team scored for over three minutes
- Harper-Baker featured in USM's 12-3 run that lasted over seven minutes by scoring seven of those points, including a three-point play with 55 seconds left and two free throws with 32.7 on the clock to pad the lead to 68-62
- After an Andrews '3' cut the margin in half, Tyree Griffin made 1 of 2 at the line on the other end and Holden converted a jumper in the lane to trim the lead down to 69-67 with 11.2 left
- Griffin made both free throws with 9.7 remaining to ice the contest
- Holden went 10 for 19 from the floor and 8 for 10 behind the line but had eight turnovers
- Ajayi also came off the bench to record 11 points, and Sikes tallied 10 of his 14 in the second half
- Cortez Edwards paced the Golden Eagles with 19 points – 18 before halftime – and Harper-Baker and Griffin added 18 apiece

NOTES
- The two teams combined to shoot 59.2 percent from the floor in the first half (61.1 percent from 3) and 34.5 percent in the second (29.6 percent)
- USA's 14 3-pointers are tied for sixth in school history and the most in regulation since also making 14 at ULM on Feb. 11, 2012
- Junior Trhae Mitchell blocked four shots to tie his season and career high; the Jags blocked six as a team
- Mitchell also led the team with seven rebounds
- Holden's .800 3-point percentage is tied for fifth in school history for a single game (min. 6 made)
- The team leading at halftime has won each of USA's first seven games this season

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "I'm really disappointed in our start. I've got to do a better job of getting these guys motivated to start games. In practice they do this almost every day too and we run; in the middle of a game, you can't run, so you have to call timeouts and play through it. Going down 17-1 on the road against a team like Southern Miss is hard to overcome, but we did and took the lead. We just had too many turnovers down the stretch. We fought back and it ended up being closer than you would have thought in the first five minutes. Any time you do that, you put yourself in a tough position to win the game."

On fixing the slow starts: "It's the personality of our team right now. It's my job as the head coach to fix that and we're working on it every day. We subbed four guys pretty quick to get us out of the funk we were in and that didn't work either. It's just who we are right now. You'd like for everything to happen pretty fast and to take on your personality as a head coach but we're not there yet."

On Holden's performance: "We missed him the first few games. Eight turnovers is not who he is and at least four of those are on me because I played him through fatigue. He was exhausted; he's only practiced two times since he got healthy and one of them was very light. I didn't plan on playing him this many minutes but I felt like we had to have him out there to have a chance to win. I'm proud of him and am glad he got back out there. He worked hard to get back and he deserved to have a good first game like that."

UP NEXT
South Alabama hosts Florida A&M Saturday at 7 p.m.

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).

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