MOBILE, Ala. — The South Alabama men's basketball team had its five-game winning streak snapped Saturday afternoon by Old Dominion as they fell 71-63 in an overtime thriller. The Jags dropped to 12-5 on the season and 4-1 in Sun Belt play, while the Monarchs improved to 8-9 on the year and 4-1 in conference play. 

South Alabama led by as many as 10 in the first half and owned a 39-33 advantage at halftime, but Old Dominion thrashed the Jaguars on the glass and limited USA to 30 percent shooting in the second half. After Old Dominion forced overtime, the Jags were held scoreless in the extra period and suffered their first conference defeat.

Myles Corey led the way for the Jaguars, logging his sixth 20-point game of the season, finishing with 20 points, four assists, and two steals. Barry Dunning Jr. tallied his 11th game in double figures in a row, scoring 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field with eight rebounds and three assists. JJ Wheat had a gritty outing and scored 12 points and three rebounds. 

"We got punched in the mouth," said head coach Richie Riley. " We take credit for doing that to other teams, and they did that to us. From a defensive standpoint, they switched everything and trusted their five-man and the rest of their guys to guard us straight up. We didn't have it all day. We've had some success, and people have started to talk about us and our guys aren't used to that. What makes our identity is we're underdogs, blue-collar, and we play harder than you do. Today, we didn't have any of that and struggled to find it. We tried to warn ourselves against it, but we couldn't. That wasn't our team out there today, and we got punched in the mouth."  

South Alabama started hot and hit three triples in the first four possessions to take a 12-5 lead at the 16:31 mark. 

Both teams battled back and forth throughout the next nine minutes when the Jags rifled off a 7-0 run off two layups in the paint from Corey and an And-One layup from Ormiston to jump on top 30-20 at 5:54. 

The Jags pushed forward, and Corey scored seven points in the final three minutes of the half to hold a 39-33 at halftime. 

Old Dominion set the tone coming out of the half, rattling off a 9-2 run to retake the lead 43-41 with 16:55 left in the game. 

Each team traded runs down the final stretch of the game as the Jags jumped back on top 60-57 after Dunning ran the floor for a fastbreak layup and Corey knocked two free throws with 5:54 remaining. 

After Wheat drained a running layup in the lane to take the lead with 59 seconds remaining, ODU responded with a layup of their own to force overtime. 

The Jags struggled overtime, failing to score a point and allowing the Monarchs to escape with a 71-63 win. 

Notes

• South Alabama shot 25 percent from behind the arc (6-of-25) and 61 percent (11-of-28) from the free throw line. 
• Old Dominion outrebounded South Alabama 46-34 and pulled 14 offensive rebounds. 
• The Jaguars still logged a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, dishing out 15 assists and only committing eight turnovers. 
• ODU scored 16 second-chance points, while the Jags only logged four. 
• Corey logged his 78th assist this year in tonight's game. 
• Dunning played all 40 minutes of tonight's game, a new season-high. 

Up Next

South Alabama will prepare to host its' two bitter rivals as they take on Southern Miss on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. CT before taking on Troy on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. CT in the Mitchell Center. 

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