MOBILE, Ala. – The Jaguars erased a 15-point Eagle lead to tie the game at the end of regulation but the University of South Alabama men's basketball team fell in overtime to Georgia Southern, 83-75, Friday night at the Mitchell Center.

Michael Flowers posted another 30-point performance with 32 points, three rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. Tyreke Locure dropped 16 on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor and 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Jamal West tallied 10 points with six rebounds, two blocks and an assist.

Georgia Southern was paced by Gedi Juozapaitis with 18 points. Kaden Archie notched 17 points with Zack and Cam Bryant each notching double digits with 15 and 13 respectively.

GAME FACTS
- The Jags started out hot and jumped to an early 9-2 lead with four minutes twenty seconds elapsed. Flowers hit two threes to start the offense.
- Georgia Southern narrowed the gap to one point, 18-17, after back-to-back three from C. Bryant and Boone with 5:35 left in the first half.
- The Eagles took a one-point lead into the locker room (33-32) after three made free throws from Juozapaitis.
- GS stretched the advantage to 14, 62-48, after a three from Z. Bryant with 7:43 remaining.
- South erased a 15-point deficit in the final 5:56 to force overtime. Flowers scored nine of the 19 Jaguar points, including back-to-back threes the latter tying the game on USA's final possession.
- Southern outscored the Jaguars 13-4 to take the win in overtime.
- Georgia Southern shot 30-for-58 from the floor for 52 percent and 14-of-26 from behind the arc for 54 percent. South was below 40 percent in both categories.
- The Eagles recorded 18 assists on 30 made baskets.

NOTES
- South Alabama has split the last six meetings with Georgia Southern, and the Eagles claimed victory in the last overtime game in the series, which was played in Mobile.
- After not having a 30-point scorer in 14 months, Flowers has scored above 30 a week apart in Friday games. It was his 10th game scoring 20 or more in a Jaguars.
- Flowers 29 field goal attempts tied second place in the Jaguar single game record book. Eugene Oliver registered 29 attempts at Southern Miss on Feb. 2, 1974. Michael Gerren has sole possession of the top spot with 30, recorded on Feb. 10, 1983.
- West scored in double digits for the first time in Sun Belt Conference play with 10. Previously, West recorded double figures in points against Emmanuel (Ga.) and Flagler (Fla.).
- Locure's double digit scoring streak was extended to four games, and 10 of the last 11 games played. In that same span, the sophomore has recorded multiple steals in seven games.

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening Statement: "We just didn't play good enough to win. We were fortunate to be able to force overtime and that gave us a new life. We came out and didn't do what we needed to do, missed a couple easy ones early, turned it over the first possession and then that carried over what we did defensively. We didn't play well enough to win, defensively- we played every defense known to man, we played anything you could play trying to get stops. Credit to Georgia Southern and how hard they played, it's hard in any situation to go on the road and get a win and they came in here and got one tonight. If we're going to win any games the rest of the way we're going to have to play better than that. We got to find a way to get a few more guys producing."
On Michael Flowers: "He's basically being guarded by five guys, he has to shoot. Him guarded right now gives us a better chance to score than a lot of our options. I hope he can find a way to get a couple easier ones off, he's a volume guy. He's an elite scorer but I wanted to raise his assist numbers when I recruited him."
On the defensive rotations in overtime: "We switched up around what their lineup allowed us to play. What we're trying to do is based on their lineup, we switched it up it wasn't anything they hadn't seen during the game. They had some guys step up tonight and do what they needed to do to win. We played everything and a lot of it has to do with our guys struggling as defenders individually. Whatever defense you're playing you have to raise your competitive level, especially in a game like this. They played really hard, I don't know if we played as hard as them all night as a whole. They played with a competitive fight that we didn't raise our level to."

Up next: South Alabama will stay in Mobile to face Georgia Southern at the Mitchell Center with tipoff scheduled at 4 p.m.

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