South Alabama basketball snapped a three-game losing streak Thursday night, beating Florida Atlantic 77-66 in its Sun Belt Conference opener behind a career-high 23 points from Xavier Roberson.
The Jaguars improved to 3-3 overall and 1-0 in the Sun Belt. FAU fell to 2-4 and 0-1.
Milestones for Arrow and the Program
The victory was the 300th conference win in South Alabama program history. It was also the 111th conference win for coach Ronnie Arrow, tying him with Gene Bartow for the most in conference history.
Arrow said the milestone was secondary to the league standings.
“I’m more into being 1-0 in the conference,” Arrow said. “That’s the most important thing. We’re working on the conference now and we play Florida International Saturday. Being 2-0, that’s the record I’m interested in.”
Arrow credited three days of preparation for FAU’s offense. “We worked on their stuff for three full days and I think tonight we guarded them,” he said. “We still didn’t guard the 3-point line, but overall I was very happy, especially with our guard play. We only had nine turnovers and we held them to 41 percent shooting.”
Roberson Fuels Big First Half
South Alabama scored a season-high 44 points in the first half. Roberson scored 15 of them, going 5-of-8 from 3-point range before halftime.
FAU led 10-6 early before Roberson hit consecutive 3-pointers to put the Jaguars in front. A layup by Javier Carter set up another Roberson 3-pointer for a seven-point lead, and a second Carter layup finished a 13-0 run.
Later in the half, four different Jaguars scored in a 9-0 run that ended with an Augustine Rubit dunk and pushed the lead to 18.
“When our 3-point shooters are on, we’re going to beat a lot of teams by a lot of points,” Arrow said. “We were scoring off of our defense. We were able to defend and that ignited our fast break.”
FAU closed the half on a 7-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer at the buzzer, to trail 44-33 at the break.
Free Throws Close It Out
Both teams cooled off after halftime. South Alabama shot 50 percent in the first half and 30.8 percent in the second, and FAU’s shooting percentage also dropped by 10 percentage points after the break.
FAU got no closer than seven points in the final 2:19. South Alabama made 8 of 10 free throws in the last 65 seconds to secure the win. Six of Roberson’s eight second-half points came at the line.
Box Score Leaders
- Roberson finished with 23 points and five rebounds.
- Freddie Goldstein scored 15 points with three assists.
- Rubit had 11 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double.
- Carter scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
- Four other Jaguars scored in single figures.
FAU’s Greg Gantt scored a game-high 29 points with eight rebounds. He was the Owls’ only player in double figures.
Up Next
South Alabama plays at Florida International on Saturday, with tipoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Central.
Update: Entering the Game
South Alabama entered the game with a 299-235 all-time record in Sun Belt Conference play. Arrow came in with a 110-84 conference record over 14 seasons at South Alabama, one victory shy of Bartow’s league record.
The Jaguars carried an RPI of 232 from RealTimeRPI and a Sagarin ranking of 172 into the game. Florida Atlantic entered with an RPI of 270 and a Sagarin ranking of 250.
The game was not carried on radio but was available through Jaguar All-Access and a web stream at WNSP.com.
