MOBILE, Ala. --- Winners of three straight at home, the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team will look to make it four in a row when they welcome Florida Atlantic to the Mitchell Center Saturday night.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
South Alabama will be celebrating our men and women in uniform as it will be Uniform Appreciation Night. Anyone wearing their military, police, fire department or youth sports uniform will receive a free ticket to the game.
All three wins have been by three points or less, including Thursday night’s 66-65 buzzer-beater victory over FIU.
“We need to continue to play good defense and need to realize what we did to win these close games and continue to do that as well,” said USA head coach Ronnie Arrow. “The thing we need to concentrate on the most is that in all these games we’ve had anywhere from 8-to-12 point leads and we have not made good decisions and those leads have been cut down. That’s why, at the end of games, we’re relying on a last-second shot. We need to have more of a killer instinct that when we get somebody down, we put them away.”
The three straight home wins (out of four overall) have come after a three-game losing streak.
“Any time you win, whether it’s a last-second shot or by 20, it’s always a confidence booster,” said Arrow. “Our guys need to understand that when we get teams down, we need to put them away. That would bolster our confidence even more rather than going down to the wire.”
The buzzer-beating bucket came via junior
LaShun Watson (Greenville, Ga.) who recorded a career-high 17 points. In his last three games, Watson is averaging 12.3 points (3rd on the team), converting 61.5% from the floor (2nd) and has five steals (1st).
Senior
Brandon Davis (Birmingham, Ala.) notched his fifth double-double of the season Thursday with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. He moved into ninth place on USA’s all-time career rebounding list and currently has 527 in his three seasons. He needs four boards to tie for eighth.
The Owls boast the conference’s leading scorer in
Paul Graham III. The senior averages 18.0 points per game on the season but 20.2 in league play.
“We have to concentrate on guarding him and be aware that he can go off for 25 points,” said Arrow. “We can’t let him hit three 3s and realize, ?Now we have to guard him.’ That’s the reason why we let teams get back in the game. Graham’s a good player but you can’t let him have the wide-open shots and have him feel good early and make his first couple of shots like Galindo did Thursday. We have to get after him from the start.”
While FAU is 2-2 in its last four games, the Owls lost 13 straight and were winless in Sun Belt action before ending the skid Jan. 31 against Louisiana-Lafayette. But they have yet to win on the road, dropping all 13 contests away from FAU Arena.
Alex Tucker is second in the conference in assists per game (5.00) and
Brett Royster leads in blocks (2.42) but they combine to average just over 10 points per game (10.5).
“Royster is their go-to player inside so we have to be able to contain him,” said Arrow. “But we have to know that if we hold Graham to 10 points, then we can’t let Tucker or Watson go for 25 points. We have to stop their team, starting with Graham.”
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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