Middle Tennessee held South Alabama without a field goal over the final 9 minutes, 8 seconds and closed on a 16-2 run to beat the Jaguars 65-55 on Saturday in a meeting of former Sun Belt Conference rivals.
The loss dropped South Alabama to 4-3. Middle Tennessee improved to 6-1.
Halftime Lead Slips Away
South Alabama led by eight points at halftime after a strong first half. The Jaguars broke a tie with a 14-3 run over a six-minute stretch to build an 11-point lead, and they made 6 of 8 3-point attempts before the break.
The second half went the other way. South Alabama shot 12.5 percent after halftime, went 0-for-13 from 3-point range and made one field goal over the final 14:20.
Middle Tennessee began a 13-0 run at the 5:32 mark, with the final 10 points of that run coming at the free-throw line.
Individual Leaders
Senior Augustine Rubit led all scorers with 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds, one short of a double-double. Freshman Aakim Saintil scored 14 points off the bench and had a career-high five steals. Junior Mychal Ammons grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Graves: ‘We Need to Be Tougher’
First-year head coach Matthew Graves said his team played hard and controlled the tempo early.
“In the second half we got lackluster and got on our heels,” Graves said. “Like I told the guys in the locker room, I think it’s a three-part problem: one, I have to do a better job of putting the players in a place to be successful. Two, I think our guards need to be more in attack mode, not to score the ball but to get others involved, and three, our bigs were stagnant.”
Graves said Middle Tennessee increased its pressure somewhat but that his team was mostly to blame. “We didn’t attack like we did in the first half and we didn’t continue to go at the rim. We settled for too many contested 3-point shots,” he said.
“What they did was make a conscious effort to drive the basketball,” Graves said. “They have a veteran team over there and they took advantage of their opportunities. The bottom line is, we need to be tougher. We have to go after every loose ball.”
Up Next
South Alabama returns to action Monday night against Spring Hill at the Mitchell Center in Mobile. Tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m.
