MOBILE, Ala. – Junior Trhae Mitchell recorded 22 points and 11 rebounds and the University of South Alabama men's basketball team finished the contest with six unanswered points in the Jaguars' 84-77 double-overtime victory vs. Coastal Carolina Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

Mitchell totaled 22 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and a career-high 5 blocks for his second straight double-double and fourth of the season. He was one of five Jaguar starters with double-digit points.

USA held a five-point lead three times in the final minute of regulation, but David Kralj nailed a 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left to tie the game at 68-68.

The Jaguars never trailed in the second extra period and scored the final six points of the game, the last four coming from Mitchell.

GAME FACTS
- South Alabama opened the game on a 10-0 run but gave up 15 of the next 18 points to trail 15-13 with 10:30 left in the half
- After the Jaguars went up 29-26 with two minutes left, the Chanticleers finished with six straight to go into halftime up 32-29
- The largest lead by either team in the final 10 minutes was five, with the final time coming after graduate Kory Holden made a free throw with 8.8 seconds left to put the Jags up 68-63; after a USA timeout, CCU's Ajay Sanders made a layup, missed the resulting free throw, but the Chants came up with the rebound
- A Coastal Carolina timeout led to Kralj's game-tying triple, and a desperation heave from Holden went off the iron
- CCU scored the first two points of overtime but Mitchell answered on USA's next possession
- A free throw from junior Josh Ajayi accounted for the final points of the period as a shot from Zac Cuthbertson was off the mark in the waning seconds
- A trey from Holden with 3:06 left in double OT broke a 75-75 tie and South Alabama never relinquished the lead again; Cuthbertson answered with a layup, but a jumper from Holden 30 seconds later put the Jags up 80-77 and Mitchell made a layup with 1:23 left to expand the margin to 82-77
- Holden tallied 16 points, Ajayi added 13, senior Rodrick Sikes contributed 12 and sophomore R.J. Kelly recorded 10 and eight rebounds
- Cuthbertson, Sanders and Kralj all finished with 12 points each

NOTES
- South Alabama is 2-0 in league play for the second straight season
- Tonight is the first multiple overtime home game in South Alabama's 51-season history; the last multiple OT game in any venue was a 72-70 victory at Samford on Dec. 18, 2015
- USA won when trailing at halftime for the first time this season (1-5) and improved to 9-1 when outshooting its opponent and 8-0 when a player records a double-double
- South Alabama converted 43.1 percent from the floor, breaking a five-game run over 50 percent; that was the team's longest streak since also going five straight in the 1990-91 campaign
- The Jaguars' current six-game run with at least 79 points is their longest since the end of the 1990-91 season, which is also the last time the program had six consecutive games with a positive assist/turnover ratio
- Mitchell has rejected three or more shots eight times this season and now has 104 in his career, sixth-most in USA history
- Mitchell had not recorded a double-double in any of his first two seasons but is second on the team this year
- South Alabama is 199-91 in 20 seasons at the Mitchell Center
- Cuthbertson came into the contest averaging 19.8 points per game, fourth in the league

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "Our team grew up today, and I just hope that it carries over to the rest of our season. This is one of those games where you grow up. That last eight seconds of regulation went as badly as it could have. We fouled when we shouldn't have fouled on a shot fake. We talked about fouling in that situation, and we do sometimes under four, but it was so tight down on the baseline we didn't do it. What could go wrong did go wrong. Most of the time in those situations you come into overtime and the team that lost the momentum and gave away the lead will lose those games. I would say the percentage is outrageous of how many times they lose those games. But our kids refused to lose tonight. In the huddles they were so positive in overtime, which is something I haven't seen from our guys. I love their approach. We've got to continue to build on that. I told these guys I'm really hard on them all the time. They don't like it, but I'm hard on them because I want them to experience moments like this. They'll remember this game for a long, long time. A double overtime win, how it went down—everything. They'll remember that and that's why we're hard on them. I think they're starting to see that. We've got to continue to grow."

On the impact of the crowd: "It was unbelievable. I want to thank the crowd again. My goal is to one day have to take those tarps off up top, where they can't be in the arena anymore because there are that many people here. We're not there yet, obviously, but I don't know if we win that game without the people who showed up today. They gave our guys life and energy and it makes a difference. As long as they let me be the head coach at South Alabama, we'll always have a team that is going to play hard, play together, and play with passion. We're going to do everything we can to win. What I ask everybody out there is to come out and watch us. Come out and help us build something special. Today you made a difference for our guys. Our guys and I felt support. You were loud. The energy in the building was the best it's been all season. We need that. Please come watch us play and thank you so much for today."

On Trhae Mitchell's performance: "He was phenomenal. He's like a Swiss army knife; he does so many things. What we asked him to do today was crazy. We asked him to play 48 minutes, guard in the full court, and create shots for other guys. They play a lot of jump defense as we saw man to man and different coverages. We knew that coming in. We had to use him to make so many plays. For him to have 22 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, only three turnovers, five blocks, two steals—that's what drives this team. He's never had to do that and he's starting to embrace it more and more. Today we really saw it. Today he kind of put us on his back, not only scoring the ball in tough situations, but making plays for other guys to get open looks that were huge down the stretch."

On Kory Holden: "He was clutch. He's been fighting injuries; we all know that. He played 30 minutes, and 30 minutes for him is like Trhae Mitchell playing 60 minutes. He's fighting to get in better shape and he's working on that, but that's why we have him here. He can make clutch shots and he stepped up. I know he was gassed, but he had enough in the tank. We kept saying in the huddles, 'road games.' This was a home game, obviously, but every Friday in conditioning we do something called 'road games.' It's the hardest day that you go through with conditioning. We did so many tough things because winning is hard. That's why we kept saying it. We've had some bad things happen and we've got to be resilient enough to go win. We're in better shape. We run more than they do. All of the 'road games' and the tough things that the guys hate, that's why we can win this game. They bought into that and it was true. Kory had enough to raise up and hit those shots. Trhae had enough to explode to make those plays. I'm just really proud of this group. I'm proud of every one of them."

UP NEXT
South Alabama goes out on the road for the first time in over a month next week, traveling to Arkansas State Thursday for a 7 p.m. tip.

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—