MACON, GA – Behind five Jaguars in double figures, the South Alabama men's basketball team trounced the Mercer Bears 83-62 Wednesday morning in Georgia. The Jags improve to 5-5 this season, while Mercer falls to 2-6. 

The Jaguars exploded as a team offensively, shooting 47.8 percent from the field and recording five double-figure stat lines. Isiah Gaiter started red hot, scoring 12 points in the first half to finish with 17 points and five rebounds. Samuel Tabe commanded the paint the entire night, scoring 15 points with three rebounds, and two steals. 

Tyrell Jones played electric on both sides of the floor, swiping a season-high four steals and finishing with 14 points on the night. Elijah Ormiston provided a spark off the bench, scoring 12 second-half points and two rebounds. 

Marcus Milender sliced and diced the Bears the entire game, scoring 10 points and dishing out a game-high four assists. 

South Alabama held the Bears to a season-low 14.2 percent from three-point range. They also forced 14 Mercer turnovers and only gave up five of their own. 

After a back-and-forth opening four minutes, the Jags used a 10-1 run to open up a lead and never looked back. South Alabama led by 13 points heading into halftime and rocketed out to a 26-point lead 83-57 with under three minutes remaining. 

Game Facts (How it Happened)

• Both teams started the game evenly as Gaiter buried two tough layups, and Jones recorded a steal and a layup to keep the game 6-6 at the 15:27 mark in the first half. 
• The Jags would begin to heat up as Thomas Howell splashed a three-pointer and a post layup before Ethan Kizer hit his second three-pointer of the season to push the Jaguars out on a 10-1 to take an 18-9 advantage with 12:22 left in the half. 
• After Mercer pulled back within five points, the Jags would take control to close out the half. Samuel Tabe hammered home a flurry of layups to secure ten first-half points, and Gaiter swished a wide-open triple and And-one layup to help extend the Jags lead to 44-31 at the end of the first half. 
• South Alabama remained on fire coming out of the halftime break and blistered out onto a 6-2 run as Gaiter made a pull-up jumper and Jones and Howell both sank a cluster of free throws to extend the lead to 49-33 with 17:02 left on the clock.
• Mercer fought back with a 13-6 run to keep the game within reach 58-47 at the 11:54 mark in the half. 
• South continued to click offensively and  jumped out onto a dismantling 16-3 second-half run highlighted by five fastbreak layups from Ormiston, a Thomas Howell three-pointer, and Millender finish near the rim to take a 79-53 lead and push the game out of reach. The Jags would walk away with an 83-62 victory. 

Notes

• South Alabama shot 49.3 percent compared to Mercer's 39.4 percent. 
• The Jaguars only gave up five turnovers and forced 14 Mercer turnovers, marking the third time South has given up fewer than seven turnovers this season. 
• This win is the 99th for Richie Riley during his time as South Alabama's Head Coach.  
• The Jags stayed locked in from the free throw line shooting, 83.3 percent from the charity stripe in the matchup. 
• South Alabama had five double-figure scorers for the first time since falling to Nicholls 97-102 earlier this year. 
• Tabe and Ormiston both recorded season-highs in scoring.
• Ethan Kizer made the first start of his career and hit his second three-pointer of the season. 
• Gaiter logged his eighth double-figure scoring game of the season. This also highlights the fifth time Gaiter's led the Jags in scoring this year.
•  Jones swiped a season-high four steals in today's contest. 
• The Jags got a spark from its bench, scoring 40 bench points to Mercer's 22. 
• South recorded a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the third time this season (0.8). 
• Julian Margrave pulled down a career-high and team-leading eight rebounds. 

Forward Elijah Ormiston
On how good today's win feels: 
"It feels so good. I can't tell you enough about how hard this group of guys has been working. We've been fighting through so much adversity and we just kept believing in each other today. It's hasn't been easy and we know what we are capable of and I think people are going to start to see that today's is the standard that we are going to set. I'm just so proud of our team and to come out here and accomplish what we did today was really fun." 

Head Coach Richie Riley
On his teams performance: 
" It was a lot of fun and I'm so happy for our guys. I forgot to come out to do radio that's how much fun we've been having back in the locker room. I just enjoy seeing how happy our guys are and love that they played hard and kept grinding. That's what makes this job fun is getting to see a bunch of great kids being so happy and proud of themselves. It makes all the hardship that we've been through so far worth it. I hope we can continue to build on this performance and keep improving." 

Up Next

South Alabama will return to the Mitchell Center this weekend as they welcome the Spring Hill College Badgers on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 3 p.m. CT.

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