MOBILE, Ala. – The Richmond men's basketball team had three players score 20 points and shot 52.6 percent from the floor in a 91-82 defeat of the University of South Alabama Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The Spiders never trailed and went 11 for 25 from 3-point land. They were led by Grant Golden (22 points), Jake Wojcik (22) and Jacob Gilyard (20).

Richmond (6-7) used a 20-4 run early in the second half to take control, making all seven field-goal attempts with six assists. Golden (6 points) and Gilyard (5) scored 11 of the 20 and the Spiders held the Jags to 1-for-7 shooting.

South Alabama (7-6) answered with a 15-4 run of its own to get within 71-60 with 7:27 left, but Gilyard stopped a 10-0 run with a '3' and the Jags got no closer than 11 until the final seconds.

GAME FACTS
- The Jaguars missed their first six shots of the contest over a 5:24 span and allowed the Spiders to take an early 10-3 lead
- After USA cut the deficit to four on two occasions, UR maintained at least a five-point advantage the rest of the half and led by as much as 10 four times
- A 3-pointer from USA senior Rodrick Sikes made it a 47-41 contest with 17:47 left in the game, but Golden answered on the other end with a dunk to start Richmond's 20-4 burst
- Jaguar graduate Kory Holden nailed a triple to get the Spider lead back to single-digits at 54-45, then a Gilyard layup started a run of 13 unanswered points for a 67-45 advantage
- Ajayi took over from there, scoring nine of South Alabama's next 15 points as the team made six straight from the floor to get within 71-60
- Gilyard's trey stopped the run and Richmond went 9 for 12 from the free-throw line in the final 1:39
- Junior Josh Ajayi led all scorers with a season-best 25 points on 11-for-16 shooting
- Holden added 19 and a team-high six assists, and junior Trhae Mitchell had 15 points
- Gilyard just missed a double-double with nine assists

NOTES
- South Alabama is now 7-1 when outshooting its opponent
- The Jaguars converted 55.0 percent from the floor on the evening, extending its streak of 50 percent games to four, the program's longest since December 2008
- USA has also shot 50 percent or better in a half seven consecutive periods
- South Alabama had 15 assists and 11 turnovers, marking the fourth straight game with a positive assist/turnover ratio, the team's longest streak since January 2009
- Ajayi, Mitchell and Holden combined for 72.0 percent of the team's scoring
- USA outscored UR 48-34 in the paint; the team has scored 98 points in the paint in the last two games
- Ajayi is averaging 20.3 points and is shooting 79.4 from the floor in his last three games
- Ajayi eclipsed the 20-point mark for the third time this season
- South Alabama is 7-6 after non-conference play for the third straight season
- The Jaguars forced 11 turnovers, their second-fewest in a game this year, and the team's two blocks tied their season low
- An opponent scored 90-plus points in the Mitchell Center for the first time since a 96-93 victory over Troy in 2014-15

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "It's an embarrassing effort. We came out with zero urgency to start the game and we allowed them to become comfortable. That's something we've talked about since the guys have been back on the 26th, and we can't allow them to do. When they're comfortable, they're really hard to guard. When you don't disrupt, pressure, and bother them and you don't play with urgency, they become hard to guard. We turned guys into much better players than what they should have been. That was on us. We had zero urgency and zero focus. It started in warmups. My staff tells me every game how we warm up and we didn't warm up well. We saw that from a couple guys and those guys didn't play well. It's disappointing. We had a chance to win number eight today, which would have been the most non-conference wins since 2011-12. Then we came out with that type of energy and that type of focus. It's sad. I told our team, I've seen this movie before. A lot of people have. It's the same deal. We got a little bit excited about winning three in a row and then we come out and lay an egg. It's really frustrating. Another thing, and I'm not ashamed to say this, is there's a reason that all of Mobile chooses to watch Notre Dame and Clemson today in the bowl game instead of coming to watch us play. It's because we don't perform at the level that draws people here. That's on me as the head coach to change that, to have a program where people in our town want to take ownership over our city and come watch us play instead of watching Clemson and Notre Dame play a playoff game. I've got to change that. I've got to fix it and make this place a hard place to win. I've got to have a team that's hard to beat, that's focused, that plays the right way, and plays with a passion that I think this game deserves to be played with. I'm frustrated because this was a big, big game. We made a big deal out of it. We wanted this game really badly and we didn't play nearly well enough to have a chance to win it."    

On teaching the team to focus game after game: "I think it's the same script. They're not young guys; they're old guys. These dudes have been here for a long time. It's hard for me to understand. I love this game. I love everything about basketball. I love the competitiveness of it. I've loved it since I was a child. I love to play it, watch it, and coach it. We have a team that does not. We don't love it. We don't cherish the moment of getting to play Richmond, an Atlantic-10 team coming in here, in a game that you should win on your home court. It was an unbelievable opportunity and we just didn't come in with the right mindset. It's frustrating. You can say that R.J. Kelly didn't play because he was suspended for violation of team rules, and we were a man down or a starter down. We had enough. We have to find a way to win. We knew he wasn't playing after the last game. We prepared for that. We just didn't have the urgency, focus, and want-to to win. It doesn't mean enough. It doesn't hurt us bad enough to lose."

On the offensive effort: "We really felt like we could score. Watching film, we felt like we could get opportunities. We did; we scored 82 points. We just didn't guard, not even a little bit. When you guard like we did today, you're not going to win. Josh Ajayi had 25 points. Most of them were point-blank looks where our guards did a good job finding him. I thought we had a decent plan as far as attacking their matchup. We wanted to get in the paint. I thought we did. We shot 33-for-60 from the field, which was pretty good. No issue with our offense. Fifty-five percent is a great number. We had 42.9 percent from '3' and made nine 3s, which is our average. Our free-throw percentage was terrible. That's all focus. We shoot more balls than anybody in the country; I would put it up against anybody. We shoot and shoot and shoot—free-throws, 3s, everything. We live in the gym. We shoot, we work, and we get in the game and our focus isn't good. It's just not. That's the most frustrating thing. I can handle losing if our whole hearts and minds are in it. If it means everything to us and we get beaten, then we just get beaten. You lose games; that's part of basketball. But when we don't have 100 percent lock-in and buy-in and fiercely competing for 40 minutes, I can't lose like that."

UP NEXT
South Alabama opens 2019 with the start of Sun Belt Conference play at home on Jan. 3 against Appalachian State.

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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—USA—