MOBILE, Ala. – Michael Flowers and Tyreke Locure each eclipsed the 20-point mark as the University of South Alabama men's backetball team led wire-to-wire in a 71-65 win over Coastal Carolina Friday night at the Mitchell Center.

Flowers paced all scorers with 28 points off 8-of-19 from the field, 8-of-8 from the charity stripe and recorded a team-leading six assists. Locure dropped 20 points with six rebounds, four assists and a steal. No other Jaguar scored in double figures but Sam Iorio was one-point shy with nine, while leading the team in rebounds with eight.

The Jaguar defense held DeVante' Jones to his lowest point total this season, as the Chant notched his 10th point with 14 seconds remaining in the contest, although the layup combined with 14 rebounds gave him a double-double. Tyrik Dixon poured in 18 for the visitors to lead CCU with five made three-pointers. Essam Mostafa also reached double figures with 11 points.

GAME FACTS
- Similar to the first meeting between this season, the defenses were affecting two of the Sun Belt's best offenses. The Jags built a five-point lead, 15-10, at the 11:30 mark. Locure had notched a pair of threes and Flowers completed a four-point play after draining a three with a foul.
- CCU cut the Jaguar advantage to five, 21-16 at 4:52 left in the first, with a 6-0 run with a three from Tyrik Dixon and three points from Tim Ceaser.
- Coastal tied the game at 23, but USA ended the half scoring nine of the final 14 points to take a 32-28 into the locker room at halftime with Iorio draining a three as time expired.
- The Chanticleers tied the game at 32 early in the second half, but South reestablished an eight-point lead (47-39) over the following six minutes seven seconds. Locure and Flowers combined for 13 of USA's 15 points.
- CCU quickly slashed the Jaguar with a 6-2 run made on back-to-back threes from Daivon Stephens 32 seconds apart. Flowers answers with a pull up jumper as the lead favored USA by four, 49-45 with 10:35 remaining in the second half.
- Coastal tied the game a third time at 53 with 6:39 left, but the Jaguars pushed back ahead 61-56 thanks to a layup from Jamal West and a pair of threes from Flowers and Iorio.
- The Jags held off CCU over the final six minutes and took a 71-65 win.
- South forced CCU into 13 turnovers and 12 points-off turnovers.
- USA registered 13 assists on 23 made field goals.

NOTES
- South Alabama's win snapped a two-game losing streak in the series with Coastal Carolina.
- It was the first victory in the Mitchell Center over the Chanticleers since the double-overtime 84-77 victory on Jan. 5, 2019.
- South had two 20-point scorers in the same game for the second time this season with Flowers and Curry accomplishing the feat previously against Alabama A&M (12/19).
- USA held Jones to his lowest scoring total of the season, 10 points. The previous low, 11 points, was set seven days ago at Georgia Southern.
- Iorio set a new season high with 8 rebounds, after setting the previous high of six last game against Georgia Southern (1/23).
- Locure eclipsed the 20-point mark for the first time in conference play and second time this season (Flagler (Fla.) 12/16).

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening Statement: ""We were able to beat a really, really good team with as good a coach as there is in the country.  Our guys' effort and attention to detail was as good as it's been all year.  We allowed 21 offensive rebounds, obviously I'm not happy about that; a lot of them were positioning, and [DeVante'] Jones was running in there relentlessly on the glass.  We have to shore that up, but we held them to 32 percent — that's an amazing number defensively — and 25 percent from three, it's the second game in a row we've been able to hold them to a number similar to that.  Obviously that's a big part of the recipe for winning, if you guard like that you give yourself a chance to win especially when you don't shoot it like you normally do; our percentages were drastically lower than they normally are and we still found a way to win the game.  I loved our intensity defensively, Tyreke was a monster all night and did an unbelievable job holding one of the best scorers in America to eight points where they were all in transition or bonus situations at the free-throw line.  I loved Michael's toughness defensively tonight and the way he rebounded the ball, and it was arguably Sam's best game of the year.  I'm proud of our whole group."
On what he credits the team's intensity in the game to: "I think we are learning to appreciate the things that go into winning, and it's hard to get a team to that point sometimes.  A lot of times kids in general think how many shots you make and how cool you look attacking dudes off the deck matter — and you certainly need to make shots to win — but what goes into winning are the gritty things that nobody wants to do.  Taking charges, guarding the ball, sacrificing your body on a box out, being the first one on the floor for a loose ball, and playing selflessly offensively are the things that go into winning, and the last two games our kids have really valued those things and that's why we've been able to win.  It's not a secret recipe that I have, it's something that I try to preach to our team every single second.  For the last two games we've really embraced that and shown an appreciation for it, our kids talk about it throughout games in the huddle, and before games and in practice, and we weren't doing that early in the year.  Our guys are holding each other accountable to things that go into winning, and that makes the biggest difference."

Up next: South Alabama will play its fourth and final regular-season game against the Chanticleers in the Mitchell Center. The game is scheduled to begin at 4 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).

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