MOBILE, Ala. – South Alabama battled down to the final possession but came up just short, falling 59–56 to Louisiana Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center. The Jaguars moved to 13–6 overall and 4–3 in Sun Belt play, while the Ragin' Cajuns improved to 5–15 on the season and 3–5 in league action.

Key Stats

• Chaze Harris led South Alabama with 18 points, scoring 12 after halftime and adding three assists and a steal. 

• Jayden Cooper finished with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting, while Adam Olsen posted nine points and a game-high nine rebounds.

• South Alabama shot 43.4 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from three-point range, holding Louisiana to 38.2 percent shooting overall.

• The Jaguars controlled the interior, outscoring Louisiana 30–12 in the paint and winning the rebounding battle, 37–27, but Louisiana connected on 15 three-pointers, accounting for over 75 percent of its scoring output.

Key Moments

• The Jags trailed 26-25 at halftime before Harris opened the second half of play with a steal and fastbreak dunk and Olsen knocked down a deep corner three to give South Alabama a brief lead. 

• Louisiana built its largest lead of the game 36-29 midway through the second half behind consecutive three-pointers and an 11-4 run. 

• South Alabama answered with a 7-0 scoring spurt of their own after Broom splashed a three-pointer and JJ Wheat and Stephen Williams rattled in layups to even the score at 36-36 with 12 minutes remaining. 

• With 2:04 remaining, Cooper buried a clutch second-chance three to trim the deficit to one, igniting the Mitchell Center.

• Randy Brady followed with an offensive rebound and putback to give the Jaguars a brief 54–53 lead with 56 seconds remaining.

• Louisiana answered with a second-chance three with 24 seconds left to reclaim the lead.

• Harris drove to the rim and finished through contact with 11 seconds remaining to tie the game at 56.

• After a timeout, Louisiana hit the go-ahead three with four seconds left, and the Jaguars' final look at the buzzer came up short.

Quotable 

Head Coach Richie Riley 

"It's an unexplainable loss, and there's nothing I can say that can make a loss like that acceptable. We won an emotional game on Thursday, and we came out, and I thought we played with no force and discipline tonight. It was not who we are. We've won a lot of games like this, but if you keep putting yourself in these positions, you're going to get snakebit. We can't drop games like this, and it was incredibly disappointing." 

Up Next

South Alabama heads to Virginia to take on James Madison on Thursday, Jan.22 at 6 p.m. CT. 

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