MOBILE, Ala. – John Pettway set a new career high in scoring with 30 points, but University of South Alabama men's basketball fell to Georgia State, 82-73, Saturday night in the Mitchell Center.

Pettway paced the game on 11-of-16 from the field and eight made free throws. Michael Flowers and Jamal West were the other double-digit scorers for the Jags (16-10, 10-7) with 14 and 12 respectively.

All five of Georgia State's (14-5, 8-4) starters were in double figures, paced Justin Roberts and Jalen Thomas with 16 points each. Thomas also recorded a double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds.  

GAME FACTS
- The Panthers jumped in front early, 10-4 after four minutes and 50 seconds of play, with neither team able to connect from behind the arc. Nsoseme and Thomas had four points each from in the paint.
- Four straight field goals from the Jaguars tied the game at 17 with Goncalves capping the streak with a three-pointer at the 10:29 mark.
- GSU pushed back in front by nine (28-19) after back-to-back field goals from Thomas and Ryan Boyce with 6:35 left in the first half.
- The Panthers carried the lead into the locker room at halftime, 40-31. Pettway was South's leading scorer with 11 points, and the Panthers' Thomas paced the game with 14 points and nine rebounds.
- Georgia State started the second half scoring 13 of the game's 17 points to go up 53-35 at the under-16 media break. The visitors sank a trio of threes with Allen hitting two and Williams sinking the other.
- South trimmed the advantage to seven points twice in the final minute, but the Panthers left Mobile with an 82-73 win.
- GSU outrebounded the Jags 40-29
- The visitors held the advantage in second-chance points 15-9
- USA got more points in the paint (38-34) and had the advantage on the fast break (13-2)
- The Panthers shot 50% from the field (31-for-62), which was a high during conference play.

NOTES
- With the result, South Alabama finishes third in the Sun Belt East with Coastal Carolina passing USA in the standings on the final day of the regular season.
- USA played the most conference games of any team in the Sun Belt this year, and only had one COVID-related schedule change.
- John Pettway finished the regular season with the highest shooting percentage (.558) on the squad after his first collegiate 30-point game.
- Flowers sits at 541 points on the season, and trails Junie Lewis' 1988-89 senior season by 25 points. Beating that mark will put Flowers into the top 10 for a single-season at South Alabama and the top five scoring season of the senior class.
- Tyreke Locure now sits in sole possession of third place for steals by a sophomore at USA with 51 on the season.
- As a team, the Jags need seven more threes to move into fifth place all time on the single-season list.

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening Statement: "First of all, with this being the last game of the regular season I want to say how proud I am of our guys for fighting through playing pretty much 6 or seven guys all year. Being diligent and safe and being able to play 17 games and haven't been shut down. I'm proud of our group, again we were sitting 2-5 with no chance, then 8-8, and now we're 16-10 after the back-to-back losses this weekend. As far as today goes we again did not guard them very well, they're extremely talented. They're not only the most talented team in our league they're the freshest team, they played 12 games in the regular season and they're the deepest. We knew coming in how dangerous they are and they showed that, they really played well. Tonight, everything was short we were a step slow all night and they were not. I think we tried really hard, we got really good kids, there's no question they wanted to win. We certainly can learn some lessons from this and our kids will, we will be back in these situations. We were able to get here this year with eight scholarship guys. We'll head to the tournament next week, we'll play on Friday and it's win or go home time. We'll get ready this weekend."
On John Pettway: "For his last game in this building it was great for him, he's meant so much to this program, he's gotten better every single year that he's been here with us. I can't tell you how great of a person he is. Pettway will be extremely successful no matter what he does. When he's done playing basketball one day he could basically do anything because of the type of kid that he is. He gave us everything that he had and we're going to miss having him around our program every day."
On Michael Flowers: "Just a really special kid, as good of a player that he is, he's a better person than that. I've said it all season long, he's one of the best guards in the country, he's phenomenal. Every team is guarding him with two or three guys and the whole plan is to take him away and he's still been able to average 21 points and shoot a pretty good percentage for the most part. He's been a joy to coach, just an incredible kid. I don't know what we would've done without him."

Up next: South Alabama will head to the Sun Belt Tournament with the official seeding to be released by the Sun Belt Conference Sunday. As it currently stands now, USA will play in the Friday 5:30 p.m. game against ULM in Pensacola, Fla.

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—