Jags Four Game Winning Streak Ends To MTSU
The South Alabama Men’s basketball team had their four game winning streak broken in Murfreesboro, Tennessee Thursday night by the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 85-50. With the win, MTSU clinched the #1 seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The Blue Raiders scored the first 13 points of the game and held the Jags to a mere 28.6 percent shooting for the game. MTSU improved their overall record to 24-4 (16-1 SBC). South Alabama fell to 15-10 on the season (12-5 SBC).
The Jags only managed to shoot 26.1 percent in the first half while committing 14 turnovers before halftime. The Blue Raiders held USA to only one field goal over a 10-minute span and led by as many as 19 points in the first half.
The first 13 points of the game all went to Middle Tennessee before Trey Anderson got the Jags on the board with 14:30 left to play in the first half. MTSU also had a 12-2 run later in the first half to pull out to a 40-21 lead and would take a 41-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half was more of the first with MTSU putting together a 23-6 run with back-to-back three-pointers to pull out to a 36 point advantage.
Augustine Rubit earned his 15th double-double of the season with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Mychal Ammons also scored 13 points before fouling out of the game. Anderson scored 11 points off the bench for the Jags, a season-high for him.
MTSU had five players in double-digits for the game.
“We just didn’t play well,” interim head coach Jeff Price said after the game. “You can’t come in and play a team like this, in this environment, and play poorly on both ends of the floor. You have to do one or the other and I thought we did not play well on either end. I’m more disappointed than anything in our defense.”
“We turned the ball over and our turnovers led to their easy baskets,” Price commented. “When you come in here, you have to take care of the ball. We talked so much about throwing the first punch in this game, we know how well they do early in games, and we’re sitting there down 13-0. It’s just a big hole to climb out of here.”
“I didn’t think we stayed in front of the ball well, I didn’t think we were good in our transition defense and we didn’t guard the rim like we have been,” observed Price. “That has not been a normal pattern of our team and we just have to go back to work. We have a big game on Saturday. We have to get this one past us and move on to the next one.”
The Jags will host their final home game of the season on Saturday when they face North Texas for Senior night. Trey Anderson, Wendell Wright, Freddie Goldstein, and Javier Carter will be honored Saturday night.
The Jags final three games will determine their seeding in the Sun Belt Tournament. They continue to hold onto second place in the conference by one game over Arkansas State. The Jags have North Texas, @ Western Kentucky and @ Troy to round out the season.
Tip-off is set for 7:05pm on Saturday against North Texas and the student section is planning a special surprise at halftime.