MOBILE, Ala. – The South Alabama men's basketball team rolled past Lynn University 74-62 Tuesday night, securing its third consecutive home victory in the Mitchell Center. With the win, the Jaguars improved to 4-3, while Lynn dropped its first game of the season, falling to 2-1. 

 Maxwell Land led the Jags with 17 points, shooting 6-of-10 from the field and perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Land was joined in double figures by Tyrell Jones with 17 points and Isiah Gaiter, who secured his sixth double-figure game in a Jaguar uniform. 

The Jaguars set a new season high in free throw percentage, hitting 21 out of 24 free throws and totaling an 87.5 game free throw percentage.

 South Alabama secured a new season high of eight steals in the contest. Isiah Gaiter, Thomas Howell, Julian Margrave, and Marshall Kearing each recorded two steals in this matchup. 

Game Facts (How it Happened) 

• The game started with both teams trading jabs back and forth until Maxwell Land and Julian Margrave splashed three-pointers to  give the Jags a 15-11 lead at the 14:27 mark in the first half. 

• South Alabama continued to rain down triples as Kearing and Jones connected on three-pointers, and Land rattled in a twisting fastbreak layup to help the South take a 25-17 advantage with 9:11 left on the clock. 

• Following a Lynn surge that pulled the score back within three points, the Jaguars jolted out on a 15-6 run off of two Land mid-range jumpers, two Jones layups, and a Margrave pull-up mid-range jumper to help give South Alabama its largest lead of the game 42-27 at halftime. 

• Coming out of the break, the Jags held its 15-point lead for three minutes before Lynn started to find an answer. The Fighting Knights went out onto a 10-0 run and trimmed the Jaguar's deficit down to five points, 55-50, at the 10:46 mark in the second half. 

• After South Alabama fired back with a free throw and a layup, Lynn rifled back onto a 10-2 spurt to cut the Jags lead down to 64-62 with 5:23 left in regulation. 

• The Jaguars locked down from that point on, holding the Fighting Knights scoreless for four and a half minutes and scoring nine straight points led by a Gaiter And one bucket and Julian Margrave's third three-pointer of the game to help South Alabama secure the 74-62 victory. 

Notes

• South Alabama set a new season-high in free throw percentage at 85.7 percent. The last time the Jaguars shot that efficiently from the free throw line came in an 82-62 win over Arkansas State in February of 2022. 

• Isiah Gaiter has scored double-figures in six of the first seven games. He is fourth in the Sun Belt Conference in field goal percentage at 58.6 %. 

• Lynn outrebounded South Alabama 49 to 25. 

• The Jags scored 17 points off 14 Fighting Knight turnovers. 

• Maxwell Land, Isiah Gaiter, and Thomas Howell each shot perfect from the free-throw line on the night. 

• Tyrell Jones has been automatic from the free throw line, shooting 18 for 21 from the charity stripe in the past two contests. 

Head Coach Richie Riley 

On the performance of the team tonight

" Thankful to get out of there with a win. Our energy level was low, and we looked like a team that had played five games in eight days, and that can't be an excuse. When you sign up to play the 40 minutes, you can't come out and start making excuses. You have to come out and play the game, and for the majority of the game, we didn't do that. I'm glad we finished the game and found a way to win, but we have to find a way to play much better than that." 

Guard Isiah Gaiter 

On the progression of this team in the past week

" We are just trying to take it day by day. Tonight, we all felt like we didn't give our best effort and had a lack of urgency. Honestly, it feels like we took a couple of steps back, and the next few days we have to get ready mentally and find ways to take steps forward in this season." 

Up Next 

South Alabama will hit the road for a three-game road trip, starting in College Park, M.D., taking on the University of Maryland on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 6 p.m. CT at the Xfinity Center. 

FOLLOW THE JAGS

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