South Alabama men’s basketball is 6-0 for the first time in program history after a 71-65 victory over Jacksonville State at Pete Mathews Coliseum in Jacksonville on Wednesday night.
The Jaguars trailed by 16 points in the first half, by six at halftime and by six again with 5:42 remaining before taking control of the game. South Alabama outscored the home team 18-7 down the stretch, including an 11-0 run to take the lead for good.
Chaze Harris scored 19 points to lead the way for South Alabama, while Peyton Law added 18 and Jayden Cooper 13. Harris and Law both had six rebounds for the Jaguars, who led for only 5:14 of game time.
“That’s a heck of a win against a really good team,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said in his post-game comments to the Jags Radio Network. “They’re going to win a lot of games and have a chance to win Conference USA. They’re good. They punched us in the mouth early with their toughness.
“The environment punched us a little bit. This was a really good environment. I was really impressed with how loud it was, and it shook our guys a little bit. And the way they were playing, they came out, they had a good plan, they attacked us defensively. They were pushing us around a little bit, and on the glass, too, that first half. But this is a resilient group.”
Jax State (3-1) jumped on top early behind the hot shooting of AC Bryant, who scored a game-high 24 points — all on 3-pointers. The Gamecocks burst out to leads of 24-8, 26-11 and 29-17 before the Jaguars began to rally.
Bryant was the only Gamecocks player in double-figures, though Jamar Franklin — who began his college career at South Alabama — scored nine on a trio of 3-pointers late in the game. JSU guard Mostapha El Moutaouakkil — who scored 33 points in a win last Friday over Coastal Carolina — managed just nine in 28 minutes on Wednesday, while point guard Jaye Nash had 12 assists but did not score.
“We have to do a better job of trying to help them get to the finish line,” Jax State coach Ray Harper said. “But if we don’t take care of some details and understand the importance of every possession there’s going to be more nights like this; this won’t be the last one, or we can fix it, and the result will probably be different.”
Franklin’s second 3-pointer gave JSU a 59-53 lead at the 5:42 mark before the Jaguars began their run. Cooper’s 3-pointer put South Alabama on top at 60-59 with 4:21 remaining, then back-to-back layups by Harris and Law made it 64-59.
Franklin hit another 3 to cut the Jaguars’ advantage to 64-62 with 2:16 remaining, but the Gamecocks never led again. Randy Brady’s offensive rebound for South Alabama led to Adam Olsen’s 3-pointer, then Harris, Olsen and Brady — who had a team-high eight rebounds in just 22 minutes of action — combined for four free throws to put the game away.
Jax State made 14 3-pointers in the game, but shot just 39% overall to 49% for South Alabama. The Gamecocks won the rebounding battle 38-36, but turned the ball over 12 times to just seven for the Jaguars.
South Alabama stays on the road Friday night at UAB, with tip-off set for 6:30 p.m. at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Jax State is at Arkansas State at 7 p.m. Monday.
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