CONWAY, S.C. – Coastal Carolina scored 55 points and shot 55.6 percent from the floor in the second half in a 92-70 win over the University of South Alabama men's basketball team Thursday night at the HTC Center.

CCU (15-14, 9-8 Sun Belt) went on a 15-5 run to go up 12 with 13:39 left in the game, then outscored USA (14-16, 7-10) 21-7 over a 5:44 stretch to take a 79-56 lead with six minutes to go.

The Chanticleers' Zac Cuthbertson paced all scorers with 28 points and Tyrell Gumbs-Frater added 17 off the bench. Both hit four 3-pointers each.

Junior Trhae Mitchell led the Jaguars with 22 points and junior Josh Ajayi contributed 13.

GAME FACTS
- The largest lead for either team in the first 17 minutes of the game was three until Coastal Carolina reeled off seven straight points to go up six with 2:31 left before halftime, then South Alabama answered with six straight to tie it up at 32-32
- A '3' from Cuthbertson and two free throws from Ebrima Dibba opened up a five-point advantage with seconds left until intermission before Ajayi hit a floater just before the buzzer for a 37-34 halftime score
- After a free throw from junior Herb McGee with 17:15 on the clock, Cuthbertson and Tyrell Gumbs-Frater tallied six points each in a 15-5 burst to go up double-digits (56-44) for the first time; DaVante Jones and Gumbs-Frater nailed back-to-back 3s to finish off the run
- The Jaguars got the lead back down to nine on two occasions – the last following two free throws from sophomore R.J. Kelly – before the Chanticleers outscored the Jags 21-7 over a six-minute span, starting at the 11:58 mark for a 79-56 advantage
- CCU went 8 for 13 from the floor and 5 for 8 from behind the arc during that stretch, while forcing misses on eight of USA's 10 attempts
- Dibba finished with a game-high 11 assists and three steals

NOTES
- The Jaguars set a new season high for free-throw percentage at 86.4 percent (19-22)
- Mitchell hit the 20-point plateau for the eighth time in 2018-19, tied with Ajayi for the most on the team
- Coastal Carolina's 55 points are the most the Jags have allowed in any half this season
- Cuthbertson entered the game averaging 11.7 points in three career games vs. South Alabama, with a high of 13 set last season
- USA is 0-3 all-time in Conway and trails in the series 5-3
- South Alabama converted just three times from 3-point land, setting a new season low
- Ajayi grabbed four rebounds to move into eighth at South Alabama with 599 in his career
- McGee led the Jags with six rebounds and five assists
- Mitchell had four assists to up his season total to 111, the most by a USA player since Daon Merritt had 182 in 2007-08

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "I'm just disappointed – really disappointed – in our effort, focus and desire to win. I didn't think we came out with the passion and hunger to win the game. I thought we went through the motions a lot tonight and it's disappointing. After we played the way we did against Texas State, I thought we were moving in a positive direction and figured out some things that went into winning, and tonight we came out and were almost the complete opposite. It's really discouraging, but I've got to get our guys going. I've got to get our guys motivated. We've got one more regular-season game and it's important that we win it. I've got to get them rebounded quickly and go out there and play our best basketball on Saturday."

On the second half: "We just laid down – we stopped. All year long, handling adversity has not been our strong suit. We faced a lot of adversity in the second half and we took a lot of possessions off, to be honest with you. Credit to (Coastal Carolina) – they made a lot of shots. They did a nice job of executing against our zone, so I give them credit too, but when things went bad for us, we had a few guys that stopped playing. When you only have 10 guys to play, you run out of guys when you have a handful of them that don't handle adversity well and stop playing when things get bad. It's just really disappointing – that's the best way to put it. I'm disappointed in how we played and in not seizing the moment. We had an opportunity to win more games than they have in their career and when we don't come out with any more passion or energy than that, it's really discouraging."

UP NEXT
South Alabama closes out the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. CST at 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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