MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's basketball team was down to six scholarship players due to injuries, health and safety protocols and lost to Appalachian State 72-64 Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.
 
The Jaguars (10-5) rallied to cut the deficit to six with less than 10 seconds remaining but were unable to draw any closer.
 
Three Jags finished the night in double figures. Jay Jay Chandler had a team-high 19 points, Marshall Kearing tied a career-best with 14 and Alex Anderson posted 12.
 
App State's CJ Huntley led all scorers with 20 points, while Adrian Delph added 16, James Lewis Jr. chipped in 15 and Michael Almonacy scored 12.
 
Date: 1/6
Place: Mitchell Center
Final Score: South Alabama 64, App State 72
Records: South Alabama 10-5 (0-2), App State 8-8 (2-1)
 
GAME FACTS
- App State opened the game on a 13-5 run, sparked by five points and two assists from Donovan Gregory over the first seven minutes.
- Chandler answered with back-to-back jumpers and South scored seven of the next nine points to cut the deficit to three, 15-12, with 12:09 left in the half.
- The Mountaineers scored seven straight points to extend the lead to eight, 26-18.
- USA responded as Charles Manning Jr. connected on a three-pointer and Kearing hit two layups to cut the lead back to three, 28-25, with 3:56 remaining.
- Appalachian State finished the half on an 8-0 run to take a 39-28 lead into the break.
- The Mountaineers opened the second half by scoring the first nine points to push the lead to 19, 47-28.  
- Anderson scored six straight for the Jags to cut the deficit back to thirteen, 47-34, with just under 15 minutes left in the contest.
- Huntley hit his fourth three-pointer of the game to stretch the App State lead back to 18, 62-44, with 7:08 in the game.
- South answered with a 12-1 run to cut the lead to seven, 63-56 with 2:27 to go.
- Appalachian State pushed the lead back to 11 with 47.8 seconds left
- Diante Smith and Chandler hit back-to-back three-pointers to pull within six, 70-64, with 6.2 seconds to go.
 
NOTES
- South has forced at least 10 turnovers in all 15 games this season.
- South Alabama's nine blocked shots were one off of a season-best.
- Chandler has scored in double figures in 12 straight games.
- After his third three-pointer of the night, Goncalves eclipsed 1,000 points for his NCAA career.
- Goncalves tied a career-high with three assists.
- Kearing blocked a career-high four shots and pulled down seven rebounds.
- Manning Jr. tied a career-best with eight rebounds.
 
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
- Opening statement:
"I think it's obvious we didn't play well enough to win, our back was against the wall a little bit — we had six guys available, seven counting [Adam] Size[more] who just got cleared today — so we had to play really well and with great courage and with an edge that we did a lot last year. Last year we were able to do that and find ways to win and tonight we weren't. We shot two free throws in the first half and that was off of a technical [foul], their physicality at the rim bothered us; we got some pretty clean looks and missed, and I think that affected us on the defensive end. The reason we had success early on was because on the defensive end we were one of the better teams in the country. The first half we played a lot of different things just trying to keep our guys out of foul trouble, but the second half we tried to get back to who we are defensively and still came out and in the first 10 possession they had to have scored on eight of them, maybe nine. We have to find a way to guard better whether we have five dudes, six dudes or eight guys or we are going to struggle to win games like this."
 
- On how the team rallied late in the second half:
"You get a little momentum late, it was 19 [points] at one time and we trailed by double digits the whole second half until the last four minutes. We were able to get some baskets and ramped up our pressure a little bit, we deflected some balls and sped them up a little bit. I give our guys credit, they could've laid down and stopped — they had every excuse in the world — but they didn't. We kept fighting."
 
- On Marshall Kearing:
"I was as proud of him as any kid I've ever coached for their performance in a game. I don't know that he's played 33 minutes combined in the last six games and he played 33 minutes tonight. It takes a ton of courage to be able to do that, early in the game he looked a little timid and I told him he can't be scared of the moment. I told him he had a chance to go out there and do some things, and from that point on he was really good; we were really trying to get the ball to him, I felt like he was our best option to score on the low block in the second half. He was unbelievable, I'm just so proud of him because he is such a good kid. This was huge for him, in a league game against a veteran team for him to be able to see the production that he had I think it will be huge for his confidence."
 
On being shorthanded in the game:
"We want to play when we can play, you see so many cancellations because it's about our guys being able to play and our fans being able to see us. If we get down to five or four obviously we can't play, but tonight we had six guys who were healthy enough to play. Some of those guys were battling injuries and are back there hurting right now, you saw some go down during the game and I thought at times we may get to four. If we can play we're going to play, that's just who we are. We didn't get the outcome we wanted, but hopefully we learned to fight through adversity a little bit and will be something that can help us down the road."
 
UP NEXT
- USA will take on Coastal Carolina Saturday at 3 p.m. (CST) at the Mitchell Center.
 
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—