PENSACOLA, Fla. | The South Alabama Jaguars defeated the James Madison Dukes Sunday evening, 75-66 at the Pensacola Bay Center, in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Championships.
 
The Jaguars (19-15) are now one win away from advancing to the NCAA Championships. Owen White and Isaiah Moore once again had strong performances, producing 17 and 18 points, respectively. Moore made three free throws in the final 30 seconds to help seal the victory.
 
Kevin Samuel added 12 rebounds and two blocks, and Greg Parham II had another big game off the bench, contributing 16 points and only one turnover.
 
The Dukes (22-11) were led by Mezie Offurum's 20 points, and the Jags held Sun Belt Sixth Man of the Year Terrence Edwards to only 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting.
 
GAME FACTS (HOW IT HAPPENED)

• The Jaguars started the game on a 9-0 run, thanks to an early three-pointer from Judah Brown and four points by Moore, and forced JMU to call a timeout with 17:36 on the clock.
• JMU missed their first five shots, then hit their next three to make the score 12-7 in favor of the Jags at the under-16 media timeout.
• After making their first five shots, South missed the following six attempts, and had a scoring drought of over four minutes as JMU clawed their way back to trail by two with 11:53 to play.
• The Jags went on an 8-2 run from 8:24 to 7:10 to build their lead back to nine, 25-16.
• White gave the Jags their biggest lead of the game, 30-19, with 4:52 to play with an "and-one".
• James Madison followed that with an 8-0 run of their own with four different scorers to cut the Jags' lead to three with two minutes to play in the first half.
• Brown hit his second three of the half with 30 seconds left, and White drew a charge on defense in the final three seconds to make the score 38-31 at the break.
• White was the first Jaguar to reach double-figures, and the Jags lead by six with 16:06 to play, 45-39.
• With 11:56 to play, the Jags continued to maintain their lead, 54-47. White led all scorers with 14, with Moore right behind at 13.
• A three-pointer from Parham with 8:56 to play gave the Jags another 10-point lead, 61-51. It was his 14^th point of the game.
• Moore's layup at 5:04 put the Jags up 12, followed by a quick layup from JMU's Vado Morse.
• JMU's Mezie Offurum made a layup with 1:34 to go to cut the Jags lead to 67-62.
• White drilled a three-pointer with 1:07 to go put the Jags back up by eight.
• Tyrell Jones knocked down both ends of a one-and-one with 56 seconds left to keep the lead at eight, 72-64.
• The Jags made five free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.

 
NOTES

• Brown played the whole first half.
• White has scored 10+ points in seven straight games, a season-high.
• Samuel is one block shy of tying the South Alabama single-season record in blocks. He has 84 so far.
• The Dukes shot 13% (2-16) from beyond the arc, the second lowest the Jags have allowed this season.
• Parham's five fouls is the first time a Jaguar has fouled out since Brown against Troy (2/9).

 
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Richie Riley:
"What a game, right? What a game. James Madison has a great team. That's this league. This league is so tough. Everybody you play all season long through the 18 games, and then we get down here and are all in one building. It's as tough in the league in the country, point blank period, that one team is going to go to the dance. It is really tough. That's why I feel so happy for this group of dudes. I can't express how happy I am for them to have a moment like they just did, and then get to have a moment tomorrow night when they have an opportunity to tip it up, 40 minutes, winner goes dancing. I mean, it's so hard to get there and have the opportunity. These kids have earned that. I can't tell you how much this team has gone through. And they have never blinked, never complained, and they just bowed up and fought. And fought themselves all the way into a conference championship game."

UP NEXT
The Jaguars advance to the Sun Belt Championship Finals to take on the winner of Texas State and Louisiana. The championship game will be on Monday at 6 p.m., and it will be broadcast on ESPN2 and Sports Talk 99.5.
 
FOLLOW THE JAGS
For complete coverage of South Alabama men's basketball, follow the Jags on social media @SouthAlabamaMBB (Twitter), /SouthAlabamaMBB (Facebook), @southalabamambb (Instagram) or visit the official home of South Alabama athletics at usajaguars.com.
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