12/30/05–
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JAGUARS REBOUND FOR 81-59 VICTORY OVER
WESTERN MICHIGAN
CONTACT:
Kit Strief
Box
Score
MOBILE,
Ala. - The University of South Alabama men's basketball
team rebounded for an 81-59 victory over Western Michigan on Friday
at the Mitchell Center to close out the 2005 portion of the schedule.
USA improves to 9-2, while Western Michigan falls to 3-7. Senior
Mario Jointer scored a team-high 15 points.
"We played one of the best games of the year," Jaguar
head coach John Pelphrey said. "We played well against Southern
Miss earlier, but this was by far one of our top performances.
After a heartbreaking 78-75 loss at Alabama State on Dec. 22, the
Jaguars came out fired up against the Broncos. USA built a 17-7
lead with 13:50 to play in the opening half. USA made five of its
first seven shots and had a dunk by senior Chey Christie to build
the 10-point lead.
Western Michigan cut the deficit to five points with 1:54 to play
on a pair of free throws by Andrew Hershberger, but three free throws
by the Jaguars pushed the lead back to eight, 41-33, at halftime.
Jointer had 10 points in the opening half for the Jaguars who shot
14-of-29 from the field as a team for 48 percent. WMU was 11-of-21
from the field and had 11 points from Andre Ricks to lead the Broncos.
Both teams were 7-of-9 from the line, but USA was 6-of-18 from beyond
the arc compared to WMU's 3-of-6.
USA built the lead to 11 points through the first five minutes of
the second half and then went on a 12-2 run over the next five minutes
to build a 65-44 lead with 10:26 to play.
A pair of Snider free throws cut the deficit to 16 points with 8:42
to go, but another Jaguar run put the game out of reach as USA extended
the lead to as many as 24 points over the next four minutes.
USA held a 79-55 lead with 4:06 remaining and went on for an 81-59
victory.
The Jaguars played without to players tonight as junior Jason McGriff
sat out due to a violation of team rules and junior Stephen Cowherd
sat out due to injury.
"Even though we were short on bodies, I am really proud of
how these guys stepped up against a quality opponent," Pelphrey
said.
USA upped its shooting in the second half going 14-for-28 and 28-of-57
for the game for 49 percent. Western Michigan, who started off hot,
was just 8-of-29 in the second half for 27 percent and was 19-of-50
for the game. Snider had a game-high 20 points for the Broncos and
Ricks chipped in 11.
Four players were in double figures for the Jaguars. Besides the
15 from Jointer, senior Michael Phillips scored 13, senior Richard
Law had 12 and sophomore Demetric Bennett had 10.
USA completes non-conference play at Tennessee on Wednesday, Jan.
4 at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net South.
It will be the second televised game for the Jaguars this season.
The Jaguars will open Sun Belt Conference play at home on Sat.,
Jan. 7 at 7:05 p.m. against conference newcomer Troy.
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