MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's basketball team held Mobile to 16.1% shooting and 13 points in the first half and went on to a 76-47 victory Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

Graduate Chad Lott led all scorers with 16 points, and senior Josh Ajayi scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half. Senior Trhae Mitchell came off the bench to record 13 and six rebounds.

The Jaguars jumped out to a 21-8 lead in the first 10-plus minutes, and stretched it out to 24 by closing out the opening half with a 14-0 run. USA later went on a 15-2 run midway through the second half to take its largest lead of the contest, 64-33.

Trenton Short hit four 3-pointers to pace Mobile with 12 points.

GAME FACTS
- Mobile grabbed an early 6-2 on a pair of 3s from Short only to see South Alabama score the next 13 points, with four apiece from Ajayi and Lott
- With the Jags holding a 23-13 lead at the 7:38 mark, they held the Rams without a point the rest of the half, scoring 14 unanswered points, starting with a '3' from freshman Tyreke Locure and capped off with a bucket from junior John Pettway
- The Rams outscored the Jaguars 18-12 in the first 5:47 of the second half before a 15-2 rally that Ajayi finished with a pair of dunks at the 6:30 mark for a 64-33 advantage
- Lott shot 7 for 11 from the floor and Ajayi made seven of his nine field-goal attempts

NOTES
- The last three meetings in the series have been decided by an average of 30 points, and Mobile has put up 47.7 points in that span
- The last USA opponent to shoot lower than 20% in a half was Blue Mountain on Nov. 14, 2016 (16.7%)
- South Alabama's 24-point lead was its largest at halftime this season
- Pettway was in the starting lineup for the first time in 2019-20, and Locure earned his second career start
- The Jaguars had 19 assists, one off their season high (20 vs. Spring Hill)
- Senior Kevin Morris' 18 minutes played are his most since Jan. 12 at Little Rock (18)
- USA held Mobile to just eight points in the paint, the fewest by an opponent all season; The Jaguars were allowing 45.3 paint points in the previous three games
- The Jags improved to 6-0 when outshooting their opponent
- South Alabama had just 10 turnovers for the second straight outing, and is averaging 10.7 miscues over that span
- Lott is averaging 17.5 points in his last two games
- Ajayi and Lott entered the game ranked first and second, respectively, in the Sun Belt in field-goal percentage

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "We held them to 28% shooting which is encouraging. We kept them out of the paint which has been a major point of emphasis for us as well as contesting 3-point shots. We did that tonight. They made nine 3s; however, I tell our guys they are only worth three points but if you let teams attack you in the paint, like we did last week, it is hard to win. Not counting their offensive rebounds, they had about 10 paint touches which is very good. We need to do a better job on the glass. When you force teams to take outside shots there is going to be a lot of long rebounds and we need to box out better. I was pleased with our effort, willingness and unselfishness to play tonight."

On the team's emotion: "It was better today. Especially Chad Lott and Herb McGee, they have done a good job leading the way to try to get guys to play with emotion and that competitive spirit that I talk about. I thought there was some of that today. Tyreke Locure played with some emotion, he played hard. Although there are moments where he loses focus, like all freshman, he played really good with some emotion. John Pettway gave us a boost as well. The starting lineup were the guys that earned it – that's why they started. If they come out and earn it again they will start against (Louisiana). This was not just a Mobile thing; whoever earns it will start and play the minutes leading forward. If you are uninterested in practice, you don't want to play the game the right way and no excitement to play, you aren't going to play very much. This is the standard we need to set because where we were last week is unacceptable and we can't have it."

On the zone defense: "I think we will play a lot more zone. We need to do a good job no matter what keeping the ball out of the paint, along with contesting long jump shots, boxing out and getting rebounds. You can't give up 50-plus points in the paint and expect to win a basketball game. I don't know how we got to that but that's where we were. Today was encouraging that we didn't give up much in the paint and held them to a low percentage."

UP NEXT
The Jaguars resume Sun Belt Conference play with a three-game road trip next week, starting with Louisiana Thursday 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).

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—