LAFAYETTE, La. — Mychal Ammons drove the left baseline for a two-handed dunk with 19.3 seconds left in the second overtime, and South Alabama basketball held on to beat Louisiana-Lafayette 91-89 on Thursday night.
The Jaguars improved to 8-7 overall and 5-2 in the Sun Belt Conference. Louisiana-Lafayette fell to 6-12 and 2-5.
Louisiana-Lafayette had a final chance, but Shawn Long’s 3-pointer at the buzzer went halfway down before rolling out.
Rally to Force Overtime
South Alabama led by as many as 13 points in the second half but trailed by six with 2:51 left in regulation after a 3-pointer by Bryant Mbamalu.
Senior Freddie Goldstein answered with a 3-pointer on the next possession. After a Louisiana-Lafayette free throw, Goldstein hit another 3 with 1:42 remaining to pull the Jaguars within one.
The teams traded free throws before Ammons came up with a steal and a layup to give South Alabama a 74-73 lead with 34.3 seconds left. Elfrid Payton made a free throw at the other end to tie the game, and Ammons missed a shot from the right baseline in the closing seconds, sending the game to overtime.
“If there’s a guy you want shooting them, it’s him,” South Alabama coach Jeff Price said of Goldstein. “He’s an experienced senior and he jumped up and made a couple.”
Two Overtimes
Neither team led by more than two points in the first overtime. Antoine Allen tied the game 82-82 with 44.4 seconds left, and the period ended there.
South Alabama did not trail in the second overtime. Augustine Rubit and Allen combined for seven points to put the Jaguars ahead 89-84 early in the period, but Payton scored on back-to-back layups as Louisiana-Lafayette answered with four straight points.
Neither team scored for nearly two minutes until Long made the second of two free throws to tie the game 89-89 with 37.5 seconds left. Ammons then scored on his dunk for the final margin.
Rubit Moves Up Rebounding List
Rubit led South Alabama with 26 points, 21 of them after halftime, and nine rebounds. He finished one rebound short of extending his streak of double-doubles, but moved into second place on South Alabama’s career rebounding list.
Dre Conner scored 19 points, 15 in the first half, before fouling out for the first time this season. Allen also scored 19. Ammons finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
Payton matched Rubit with 26 points for Louisiana-Lafayette, scoring 22 after halftime, and added seven assists and three steals. Mbamalu scored 19, and Long had 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Price: ‘A Hard-Fought Win’
“It was a hard-fought win on the road,” Price said. “I thought our guys did a great job of being very resilient in what became a tough atmosphere as the game went on. We had our lapses but we drew things up well late in the game and got a great look from Mike in regulation that didn’t go down. With about three minutes to go in regulation things didn’t look real good for us and I thought our guys did a really nice job of fighting back.”
Price credited Ammons’ play down the stretch. “Mychal had some huge plays—some steals and plays at the basket and that dunk at the end of the game,” he said. “He just took it strong to the basket and buried it with two hands.”
He also praised Rubit for passing out of double and triple teams late in the game. “I thought Aug did a really nice job late of understanding he had two or three guys on him and kicking the ball out. We just have to knock those shots down, regardless of who’s shooting them,” Price said. “Aug just affects the game so much when you go in to him and he continues to get better at understanding he can make other guys better.”
Up Next
South Alabama continues its two-game road trip at North Texas on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
