Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-03-04
In the studio today at Wing’s Sports Grill on the Beltine near I-65 just off of Airport Blvd is Head Coach Joey Jones, Lee Shirvanian and Travis Toth.
One of the first questions was how close is the schedule to being finalized? Coach Jones said that they are waiting on one last contract to come through and they should be ready to release the 2009 football schedule. Lee Shirvanian followed that question up with his next one, why does it take so long? When getting game contracts together, lawyers get involved so they have to read through the contract to make sure that it benefits their school. Another thing has been trying to find teams that have open dates that match up with ours.
Putting together the schedule is like trying to put a huge puzzle together, all the pieces have to analyzed and fit together to make an overall picture. But for the 2009 season they are looking at possibly 8 games.Which by all indications all seven or eight games will be home games. While it was not stated the most likely reason that schools would want to travel to Mobile is that its a larger stadium than most they will be playing their first season in Division-I football.
Also, spring practice will be starting on Monday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and the coaching staff has changed their minds once again for the publics benefit. All practices, including the first week, will be open to the public. Practices will be held from 2:30-4:45pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays with the occasional Wensday thrown in there as well. Coach Jones said there will be right at 100 players out there for practice with roughly 16* of them having scholarships. (* NOTE: This number may or may not be accurate.)
When asked what they will be doing at practice Coach Jones said that they have to evaluate all of the kids and give them a chance. In addition to evaluating them, they also have to teach fundamentals. The coaching staff are not going to be too fast in getting into scrimmages, they will be having scrimmages but they have to start with the fundamentals first.
Joe Gottfried visited the show and was talking about scheduling. Again Lee Shirvanian asked why is it so hard to put together a schedule? Gottfried’s response was that since we are an unclassified school it’s hard to find other unclassified schools or find schools who want to schedule you. Plus getting them to travel to Mobile is sometimes difficult. They are working on teams for 2012-2016 and spending a lot of time to work those schedules out so they will benefit our team the best we can. They do not want to schedule another big game the next week after playing Tennesse for instance.
Lee made light about how quick the USA program is going from nothing to Division-I football. Gottfried said that South Florida took 3-4 years to do what we are on track to do in 1 or 2 years. The staff and administration have gotten on board and without them it could not be possible to do it. Joe Gottfried also let it out that in 4-5 years from now we just might be on the schedule to play Notre Dame. Joe is close to some people up there and they have said we are still on the list of potential opponents for Notre Dame. What is really exciting about the possibility of USA playing Notre Dame is that they have a long standing contract with NBC to have their games nationally broadcast. So that would be you would be able to see USA taking on Notre Dame national television like NBC within the first could seasons of being in Division-I football.
Joe Gottfried also talked about how the topic comes up regularly about the possibility of building an on-campus football stadium. He said that that decision is definitely further down the road. But if that were to come true it would just all to all of the current construction on the USA Campus that is generating large amounts of excitment. If you go by the intramural fields and see the football field house being constructed along with the practice fields and all that goes along with that, you will be amazed and cannot help but to get excited about USA. Also the new student recreation center being built at the corner of Old Shell Road and Stadium Drive right beside of Stanky Field. It is such a great time to be a Jaguar.
One caller asked if we would be playing in the Sun Belt conference when we begin this fall. Coach Jones response was that in 2012 we will have our first full Sun Belt schedule. However, until that time we will be playing as an independent school.
Coach Jones, when asked if they are still looking for players, said that the coaching staff is still looking to bring in at least one more quarterback. Just like with their other quarterback recruits that will be coming in he will have to be of the runner/thrower model to fit in with their offense.
Men And Women Both In Action Tonight In SBC First Round Games
The 5th seeded Lady Jaguars kick off the night of basketball with a 5:00pm tip-off at the Mitchell Center when they host #12 seeded Florida International in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.
The 6th seeded men’s team will host the #11 seeded New Orleans Privateers for a scheduled 7:30pm tip-off for their first round match-up of the Sun Belt Tournament. New Orleans is a 12 point favorite currently.
Winners of these games will advance to the remaining rounds of the tournament that will be held in Hot Springs, Arkansas from March 7th through March 10th. The Women’s Championship game will be televised on ESPN-Plus. The Quarterfinals games of the Men’s bracket will be available on ESPN-Plus with the Championship game being aired on ESPN2.
As for the NCAA Tournament, its simple. Win four in a row and you’re in! Winners of the SBC Championship receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament
So come out to the Mitchell Center and help the Jaguars start their run to the Tournament off on the right foot. USA Students receive free tickets to the game so you do not have an excuse not to come.
GO JAGS!!!
USA Men And Women Both Host Teams In First Round Of SBC Tournament
On Sunday afternoon both the Jaguar Men and Women learned that they will host teams for the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.
The Lady Jaguars will host Florida International at 5pm on Wednesday to open a double header in the Mitchell Center. The second half of the double header will have the Men hosting New Orleans with a tip-off scheduled for 7:30pm.
The Lady Jags regular season came to a close on Saturday with a 19-9 record and going 10-8 in the Sun Belt. They were in a tie with Denver, Troy, Western Kentucky and Arkansas State. The Sun Belt’s tie-breaking system seeded USA 5th and will host the 12 seeded Florida International.
The Men’s team finished the season on Saturday night with a 17-12 record overall and 10-8 in the SBC. USA finished tied with Middle Tennessee for 5th place but was on the losing end of the tiebreaker to be seeded 6th in the tournament and will host the 11th seeded New Orleans Privateers.
The winners of these match-ups will advance to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the rest of the Sun Belt Tournament held March 7th through March 10th with the Men’s Championship game being broadcast on ESPN2 and the Women’s Championship game being broadcast on ESPN-Plus.
Come out and SUPPORT YOUR JAGS!!!
Jaguars Lose On Poor Shooting And Turnovers
The Jaguars shot only 36% and had 17 turnovers in their loss to Troy in the regular season finale.
Troy started the game with an 11-3 run over the first six and a half minutes to take an eight point lead. A three-pointer by Domonic Tilford would spur the Jaguars to a short rally to cut the Trojan lead and tie the game at 16 about half way through the first half.
The Trojans would break the tie and push out to a seven point lead with 5:31 left in the first half. Again the Jaguars mounted a rally attempt and would cut the lead down to three, 29-26 with 2:52 left in the opening half. But Troy would again extend their lead to seven points, have it cut down to four points and extend it to seven once more just before halftime, 36-29.
Domonic Tilford would open the second half with a 3-pointer but would still see Troy’s lead grow to eight points four minutes into the second half. Yet another three pointer by Domonic Tilford would shrink the Trojan lead to four, 45-41 with 13:55 left in the second half. But Troy would answer with a 6-0 run to stretch their lead to the largest of the game, 51-41.
After trading baskets, the Jaguars would make another run at the Troy lead by going on a 7-0 run over three minutes to get within three points of the lead at 53-50. Troy would once again hit a 6-1 run over a minute and a half to lead by eight, 59-51. The Jaguars would make one last run for the game going 7-2 over four minutes and seventeen seconds to get within three points with 25 seconds left. LaShun Watson was forced to foul with 19 seconds left with Troy making both attempts to make the Trojan lead five points, 63-58. Domonic Tilford missed a three-point attemp with 14 seconds left forcing Ronald Douglas to foul when Troy came away with the rebound.
Domonic Tilford led the Jags in scoring with 17 on 5-17 shooting from the floor, 5-12 from 3-point range and going 2-2 from the free-throw line. Bryan Sherrer was the only other Jag to score in double digits with 12, he went 4-7 from the floor, missed both 3-point attempts but hit all four of his free-throw attempts.
Troy had four players in double digits. Michael Vogler scored 13, Brandon Hazzard had 12, and Antywan Jones and Mario Telfair both had 10 for the Trojans.
Troy outscored the Jags in the paint 36-20, off turnovers 17-6 and in fast break points 10-4. Troy also outshot the Jags 45% – 36% from the floor. While the Jags out rebounded Troy 45-34, they turned the ball over 17 times. However the Jaguar defense held Troy to 15 points below their season average and held them 31 lower than their previous matchup in the Mitchell Center.
Coach Arrow remarked after the game, “Offensively we just didn’t make enough plays. We didn’t attack the zone good, we had some guys that didn’t play well tonight and now we’ve got to go back to the drawing board. We have to have all of our guys show up ready to play for the tournament.”
Domonic Tilford is now seventh place in USA single season history with 74 three-point field goals in a season. DeAndre Coleman is also one rebound shy of 500 for his career at South Alabama.
USA drops to 17-12 for the season and 10-8 in the Sun Belt while Troy improves to 19-11 overall and 14-4 in the SBC. South Alabama will await the announcement of their opponent in the opening round of the Sun Belt Conference on Sunday.
GO JAGS!!
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-02-25
Brian is in the studio with Coach Jones and Justin Schwin. Lee Shirvanian is with the baseball team getting ready to broadcast when they take on Southern Miss. Broadcasting live from Wings Sports Grill on Airport Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama.
With spring practice beginning in one week from Monday on March 9th they were talking about the workouts and the time being put into strength and conditioning since Justin Schwin was among the radio panel this week. Each coach has a certain area in the weight room to cover while the Strength and Conditioning coach Justin Schwin is moving around checking everything out and making sure everything is going correctly.
They can work with the players eight hours a week up until spring practice begin. At that time they can then work with them 20 hours a week. The breakdown of the workout under the current eight hours a week schedule is that they are in the weight room five days a week. During spring practice they will be in the weight room two days a week but the rest of the time the workouts will be on the field for the 20 hour a week maximum.
Coach Jones said he wants the athletes made into athletes not muscle bound blocks that cannot move on the field. They are not just building strength and bulk like sometimes was done in the old days or is portrayed in movies but he wants athletic players that can move and have speed. They can and will modify players’ workouts for whatever Coach Jones wants to see the player work on.
You have to train for everything from strength and agility to hip speed and changing direction you cannot focus too much on one and neglect the other. Weight training has to be done very carefully else you will injure kids. It has to be done in progression from getting the right form and technique up to the point they are finally working out and getting stronger. Also you cannot work out at 100% capacity every time because that does not improve the players and it also leaves them open to injury.
When talking about supplements, protein shakes and the such Coach Jones said that if you eat correctly then you don’t really need all the supplements on the side. They may have an added benefit but proper nutrition will work and may even work better than supplements. What he says to the players is that if it’s a quick fix then it’s probably not that good. With any sports players and just like with these players, if they eat junk and play football then they will play like junk.
Coach Jones clarified about where practices will be held. It was initially decided to use Ladd-Peebles Stadium for the workouts and practice until the time that the fieldhouse is completed for summer/fall workouts and due to students class schedules and transportation to and from the Stadium. However after looking at possibly building or using something as a locker room and shower facility, they determined that it was not economically feasible to do such and it was worked out that Ladd-Peebles would again be where spring practice would be held.
The first three practices will be closed to the public, but the workout times have been set for 2:30-4:45pm. Three possible scrimmages have been scheduled for March 27th, April 3rd and April 10th which will be open to the public at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
A caller asked about a possible television coach’s show. The caller has seen schools like Troy, and others around the country, who have a televised coaches shows and he posed that it would be an invaluable recruiting tool for Coach Jones and USA to have a televised coaches show. Additionally he asked if WNSP (who broadcasts the Joey Jones Show) was going to be the flagship radio station for USA sports whereby everything USA would come first before other things (shows etc.). Coach Jones said that USA has signed a contract with IMG and they will have a lot of input into what is done. Joe Gottfried has been talking about many potential things but nothing has been thrown out as a concrete option or idea yet.
Jags Baseball Post Win Over #6 Ole Miss, Coach Kittrell Wins 1,000th Game
USA defeated the #6 ranked Ole Miss Rebels at Stanky Field 3-2 in 10 innings to give head coach Steve Kittrell his 1,000th win in his career on Sunday. He is the 50th NCAA coach to reach the 1,000 victory milestone.
Jags Notch Fourth In A Row By Downing Louisiana-Monroe
Two Jaguars ended the night with double-doubles to lead USA to their fourth victory in a row and sixth in the last seven games. USA improves to 17-11 overall and 10-7 in the Sun Belt Conference.
ULM scored first in the game on two free-throws but USA would keep it close throughout the first four and a half minutes of the game. But with 15:25 left in the opening half with the Jags down by one at 8-9 they would go on a 18-4 run over the next seven plus minutes to take a 13 point lead with 7:47 left in the opening half. But ULM would slowly chip away at the Jaguar lead until they were within three points with 43 seconds to go in the half. A tip-in by DeAndre Coleman with time expiring took USA into the locker room with a five point advantage, 35-30.
USA’s lead would get out to as much as seven points in the opening minutes of the second half until a short 6-0 run over three minutes put the Jaguars back out to a double digit lead, 46-35.
USA and ULM would trade baskets over the next seven minutes until USA would finally push out to a 15 point lead with just under eight minutes left. Over the next four minutes they would methodically close the gap to seven, 63-56, with 3:48 to go in the game but that would be as close as they could get in the final minutes. A few traded baskets later and the Jags would win by the same margin 67-60.
DeAndre Coleman would lead all scorers with 21 points on 9-13 shooting, missing his only 3-point attempt and going 3-8 from the free-throw line but added 10 rebounds for a double-double while still blocking three shots. Brandon Davis would add 16 points and 14 rebounds for another double-double for USA. Domonic Tilford was the only other USA player in double-digits scoring with 11. Ronald Douglas also blocked four shots to extend his streak of consecutive games with a blocked shot to 12.
Louisiana-Monroe had three players in double digits: Lawrence Gilbert scored 14 and Malcolm Thomas and Kenneth Averette both scored 11.
The Jags shot 47% from the floor compared to ULM’s 35% and the Jags out rebounded them 41-34. USA outscored them in the paint 42-20, off turnovers 15-10, and fast break points 8-4.
When asked about the teams recent success Coach Arrow answered, “It’s defense. Our guards have bought into better guarding their man. Before, all of their guys were getting to the hole, and our guys were shot-blocking. Now, they’re doing a better job of containing, knowing that if they get by our post is there to shot-block. What Ronald Douglas does for this team, he alters so many shots. It’s good to know when they do get by our guards, we have the shot-blockers back there to guard the hole.”
The Jaguars regular season closer is scheduled for Saturday in Troy, Alabama with a 7:30pm tip-off.
GO JAGS!!!
Jaguars Come From Behind For Win Over Middle Tennessee
Jaguars turn up the defense and rally from nine points down for their third consecutive victory. With this win the Jaguars improve to 16-11 overall and 9-7 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Blue Raiders fall to 15-12 overall and 8-7 in the Sun Belt Conference.
MTSu started the game with a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the game. The Jaguars would follow that up with a 6-0 run of their own in the next three minutes. Both teams would trade baskets over the next five minutes until USA finally gained the lead on a dunk by Ronald Douglas at the 9:01 mark of the first half.
The Jaguar lead would get out to as much as three points, 16-13, before MTSU would come back to regain the lead and go into halftime with a 26-23 advantage.
The beginning of the second half started simlarly to the first half with MTSU jumping out with an 8-2 runover the first three minutes. This run would put the Blue Raiders in front by nine points, 34-25, with 17:06 left in the second half. Early in the second half, LaShun Watson took an elbow to the mouth. It resulted in Watson receiving five stitches and he did not return to the game.
Down 41-33 with 11:25 remaining in the second half the Jaguars would regain the lead and control of the game with a 15-2 run over a five and a half minute run to take a five point lead. Kevin Kanaskie tried to keep the Blue Raiders in the game with a 3-pointer, cutting the lead back down to two, but USA would not let them get closer than that moment the rest of the way. The Jaguars would win the game 63-57.
Coach Arrow remarked about the game, “That was a very, very physical game. Both teams came out and got after it. The difference in the game was we held them to 36 percent and we had nine blocked shots. When you have that many blocked shots from guys getting to the hole, that’s almost like a turnover.”
Freshman phenom CJ Garner lead all USA scorers with 15 points for a career high, with 13 of them coming in the second half. More impressively he hit 5-6 free-throws in the final 38 seconds to help seal the victory. Coach Arrow remarked about Garner, “C.J. is growing up; he’s not a freshman anymore, We call him an advanced freshman, with all the experience that he’s gotten. He ran his team tonight very well.”
Three other Jaguars scored 11 points each: Domonic Tilford who went 6-6 fron the free throw line and made the only Jaguar 3-pointer for the game. DeAndre Coleman added 11 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for his seventh double-double of the season and his ninth of his career. Ronald Douglas scored 11 points and had five blocked shots but only made 5-12 free throw attempts for the game.
MTSU had a pair of players score 15 points: Desmond Yates and Memetrius Green with only one 3-pointer between them. Kevin Kanaskie was the only other player in double digits for the Blue Raider with 11 being held to three 3-pointers for the contest.
USA held MTSU to 36% shooting for the game and 4-13 for the game from beyond the 3-point arc. But USA dominated the free-throw line going 28-42 while MTSU went 5-12. MTSU obviously had foul problems with Yates fouling out with 6:21 remaining in the game and another bench player fouling out in the game plus two other starters with four fouls each.
This win moves USA over Middle Tennessee to the 3rd position in the eastern division of the Sun Belt Conference, a full three games behind Troy for second place in the eastern division.
The Jaguars return home for their regular season finale when they host Louisiana-Monroe for a 7:05pm match-up in the Mitchell Center.
So come out and SUPPORT YOUR JAGS!!!
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-02-18
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| Artists rendering of what Ladd-Peebles Stadium could look like in the fall. |
Brian sitting in for Lee Shirvanian who is heading to Tennessee with the basketball team for a matchup with MTSU. In the studio at Wings Sports Grill is Coach Joey Jones and the new Offensive Coordinator for the South Alabama Jaguars, Coach Greg Gregory.
Coach Jones was the Grand Marshal of the Mardi Gras parade Wednesday night. At the end of last week, Coach Jones announced Greg Gregory as the new Offensive Coordinator for the Jaguars. Coach Jones said he tried to stay patient in the light of how important the position was on the staff. He wanted to fill it as soon as possible so the players can start to get to know him, his philosophy and start getting stuff together. But he also did not want to rush to fill the position with just anyone. Coach Jones wanted to get a good coach with the philosophy that he wanted that fit the players and the staff he already has in place.
Coach Jones and Coach Gregory have very similar philosophies. Both feel that a balanced offense is a necessity to keep the defenses from targeting the run or the pass. Coach Jones did not want a coach that was of the fun-n-gun mentality who throws every down and has only a handful of running plays. But he did not want a coach that ran the wishbone either. Probably above all, Coach Gregory wanted to be at USA. He wanted to be part of a new start-up program. Obviously he has been around that with his time at South Florida, which is to date the fastest program from inception to playing Division I-A football in the history of the NCAA.
Coach Gregory said that he and Coach Jones talked about a month ago and some things happened at USF as well. He said it was not negative but from what I have gathered online he may have talked with Urban Meyer at Florida about the open OC position there and Coach Leavitt stripped him of the Offensive Coordinator name and/or duties. Coach Gregory also said that it has been a goal of his to be at a program that is starting its football program. He wants to be a part of starting a quality program and be there when the history is made and when the traditions are started.
Brian asked the question that everyone wants to know obviously, what the offense going to resemble when we see the Jaguars take the field this fall. Coach Gregory said they want to be pretty balanced. Last season at South Florida they ran the ball a little over 500 times and threw the ball somewhere in the 400’s which is pretty balanced. The passing game yielded a little more yardage than the running game but was still pretty close. But his goal for the offense is to be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want on the field. Being able to run the ball or throw the ball in any given situation really gives the offense a huge advantage over the defense and allows them to dictate the pace and tempo of the game. They also want to have the tough, hard-nosed element as well as the exciting element of the game. This translates into them having the ability to run through or over someone for those tough yards but also having the spark for an 80 yard run or pass reception for a touchdown.
During Coach Spurrier’s time at Florida their offense was seen as a passing offense however if you look back at the play breakdown, they probably passed about 60% of the time and ran about 40% of the time. Plus if you look at the yardage breakdown it would roughly be about the same. However their offense was perceived at a passing offense. The coach can craft the image of the offense to be what he wants it to be and Spurrier wanted it to be perceived that way. Their philosophy was to throw early and run late so they would throw the ball to open up the running game. So they were still a pretty balanced offense but not in the conventional manner.
But really what it boils down to is doing what it takes to win game. If it takes throwing the ball to win games, you want to be able to throw the ball well. If it takes running the ball and grinding out yards then you want to be able to do that well also. Additionally it’s a team sport, so the offense cannot just do what it wants to do at the expense of the offense. An offense cannot pass and throw interceptions all game long and expect the defense to bail them out every time. But in a similar way the defense cannot blitz every down and give up quick touchdowns and expect the offense to bail them out as well.
A listener called in asking about how important is it for USA to get a stadium on campus. Obviously, if it were not for Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile we still may not have college football at USA and Coach Jones also acknowledged this. He went on to say that there are possible plans for a stadium on campus but nothing solid and also nothing in the near future. Teams who have gone with on campus stadiums tend to have larger student turnout for the games. Currently, they (the staff and players) are only focused on playing at Ladd-Peebles. South Florida play in Raymond-James Stadium which is the Tampa Bay Bucs stadium which is obviously off campus so Coach Gregory is familiar with this type of setup.
In the Sunday edition of the Mobile Press-Register, there was an article about a group of people from the C.P. Newdome Foundation that that wants to build an extensive network of sports facilities in the county for a price that could reach $1 Billion. Included in their plan was a 50,000 seat stadium. When brought up by Brian, Coach Jones said he had not heard of it which was not surprising since he has been working diligently on the recruiting class announced recently. Most small Division I-A schools average about 25,000 per game Coach Jones said. With USA playing at Ladd-Peebles, which seats 40,646 (but is said to have a maximum of capacity of 50,000), it will be very good if every game is a sell-out.
While the size would be great, he acknowledged he does not know anything about it. However my thoughts about it is, yes it sounds nice if it comes to fruition, however the place they have been talking about building it is less than ideal to say the least. Their idea is for more than 1,000 acres near Interstate 10 and McDonald Road which is, at the shortest distance, is at least 15 miles from both campus and downtown Mobile and is roughly a 40 minute commute from campus. If a location that is large enough could be found that is closer to the campus or downtown Mobile, then I think it would be a more realistic dream but at the moment I think this is still a dream in this groups mind.
Brian said that he has gone on record before saying that Ladd-Peebles stadium is not the nicest facility in North America but it is located in a good place. It is close to what is happening downtown as well as the nice hotels like the Battlehouse which is where they put recruits when they visited Mobile. However, campus is where everyone wants to build a stadium but, as he was saying, $20-30 Million dollars could be invested in Ladd-Peebles to make it a much nicer facility and it would satisfy South Alabama’s needs for several years to come.
Coach Jones said he likes where it is and the tradition behind the stadium as well. He had several recruits make their official visit to USA over Senior Bowl weekend and while he could not give them tickets to the game, he did get to let them on the sidelines at one point and he credited that as a great recruiting tool for them. He does not have any negatives about Ladd-Peebles Stadium however it will be the President’s choice ultimately about future stadium possibilities.
Coach Gregory said he does not believe that the stadium being off campus (or being Ladd-Peebles Stadium) makes that much difference in where they choose to go play. It is about the coaches, the environment and the school.
Coach Gregory was asked about the offense again and he was talking about his previous experience how his team went from like a regular I formation offense to a wishbone offense from one year to the next. But they had experience with the offense and college ball. At USA with a new program it’s a bit different. Coach Gregory said he has to keep in mind how much can they put it, play wise, for the offense. That will depend on how well the players internalize the offense and the plays as to how much he can get installed before the fall.
Most teams by now at least have some idea of who is going to start under center at quarterback or as running back and so forth. But in USA’s case, these are all unknowns. Coach Gregory hardly knows their names right now much less who is going to start where. But all the players will have a chance and the good ones will come to top.
Jaguars Win In Impressive Fashion Over FAU
The Jaguars showed what they can do when they are hitting on all cylinders. They never trailed during the game and shot over 67% from the floor for the contest in their fourth consecutive home victory to get them above .500 for the season in the Sun Belt Conference.
Throughout the first ten minutes of the first half, FAU would not let USA get too far from their sights and would close the gap to within one point. But with a 15-3 run the Jags would never look back for the rest of the half gaining a 15 point advantage several times in the final four minutes of the half, going into the locker room up 46-31.
The second half would see both teams trading baskets but USA would eventually inch out to a 21 point lead at 60-39 at the 14:13 mark in the second half. FAU would not give up, battling back with a 15-5 run in just under four minutes to close the lead to 11 points, 65-54.
FAU and the Jaguars would continue trading shots until FAU closed the lead by one more point to 10, 77-67, with 4:48 remaining in the game. But USA would finish the game with a 14-3 run for the final score of 91-70.
Coach Arrow said after the game, “I thought tonight that we went ahead and put them away. We shared the ball really well tonight. Twenty-six assists is super. We executed our plays and in transition. When we took the lead early, our defense got steals, layups and deflections. We played with a lot of energy to start the game.”
Florida Atlantic’s Paul Graham III lead all in scoring with 27 points on 10-22 shooting, going 3-8 from 3-point range and hitting all four of his free-throw attempts. Shavar Richardson added 24 points as well as being the only other player in double-digits for FAU.
Brandon Davis lead the way for the Jags with 23 points on 9-10 shooting from the floor and 5-6 from the free-throw line, he did not attempt any 3-point shots. Domonic Tilford scored 17 points hitting 3 of the Jaguars six 3-pointers for the game. LaShun Watson scored 12 points and had a tie for the most assists for the game with DeAndre Coleman with 7. Bryan Sherrer scored 11 and CJ Garner added 10 points to round out the double digit scorers.
USA as a team has 8 blocks and 13 turnovers compared with FAU’s one block and 9 forced turnovers. USA led with 46 points in the paint to FAU’s 20 and 27 fast break points to FAU’s 2.
The Jaguars are back in action on Thursday when they travel to Middle Tennessee State for a 7pm tip-off against the Blue Raiders who won their previous match-up at the Mitchell Center 82-67. A win against MTSU would move USA over MTSU into 3rd place in the Eastern Division.
GO JAGUARS!