MOBILE, Ala. —Behind a relentless defensive effort and an efficient night of shooting from the field, the South Alabama men's Basketball team dismantled James Madison 77-49  Saturday afternoon in the Mitchell Center. The Jags opened conference play with a victory and improved to 8-4, while James Madison fell to 6-6 overall and 0-1 in Sun Belt play. 

Apart from a JMU bucket on the first possession of the game, the Jags never trailed in this one, shooting 51 percent from the field to lead by as much as 34 points in the second half. South Alabama scored 36 points in the paint and forced 15 JMU turnovers while holding the defending Sun Belt champs to 29.1 percent shooting from the floor to secure the victory. 

The dynamic duo of Myles Corey and Barry Dunning Jr. led the way for the Jags once again. Corey got back on track, scoring 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor while dishing out seven assists, swiping three steals, and Dunning finished with double figures for the sixth game in a row, scoring 16 points with four rebounds and an assist. John Broom did it all for the Jags in this one, chipping in seven points, seven rebounds, and four steals. 

" Really proud of our dudes and the performance they had defensively," head coach Richie Riley said. " Our calling card is our defense and we want it to continue to be that way. We want to continue to play our zone with force and discipline, and today we did that. Our focus level was great because we played an excellent team. They were picked to finish second in the conference for a reason. They're well-coached and have great plays. Our guys came out today with all of the right things. I love coaching this team. This is the most fun I've had coaching a team, arguably ever.  They genuinely are the best group of kids I can ever imagine coaching. Today, they played with an unbelievable amount of focus and force." 

James Madison won the opening tip and hammered home an immediate alley-oop dunk, but the Jaguars answered with a 9-0 run powered by five points from Corey and a thunderous throw down from Dunning to give the Jags a lead at the 17:06 mark. 

South kept its foot on the gas and blasted out on a 21-8 spurt to take a commanding 30-10 advantage with 6:10 left on the clock. 

JMU showed life to close out the first half and marched onto a 16-4 run to trim the Jags lead to 34-26 at halftime. 

After the Dukes cut the lead to seven points coming out of the break, South Alabama took back all of the momentum, putting any chance of JMU comeback away with a 20-2 run off 12 combined points from Corey and Dunning with back-to-back coast to coast finishes from Broom to put the game out of reach. 

Game Notes

• South Alabama dominated the paint the entire night, rebounding the Dukes 34-33 and scoring 36 points in the paint compared to 16 from JMU. 
• As a team, South Alabama recorded 16 assists, marking the ninth game this season they've logged 15 assists or more. 
• Five Jaguars swiped two or more steals in this contest – Broom 4, Corey 3, Brady 2, Ormiston 2, Wheat 2. Additionally, the Jags scored 24 points off turnovers, while the Dukes scored four points. 
• Cantia Rahming had an impressive night distributing the ball. The graduate transfer picked up a career-high four assists in tonight's contest. 
• Corey eclipsed 325 career assists in tonight's game. 

Up Next

South Alabama will close non-conference play with a matchup against Mobile on Monday, Dec.30 at 7 p.m. CT in the Mitchell Center. 

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