MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama basketball beat Troy 96-93 on Senior Night at the Mitchell Center, finishing the regular season with back-to-back wins and earning the No. 6 seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Over the same weekend, the No. 24 South Alabama softball team won the final game of its series against No. 7 Louisiana-Lafayette, and the baseball team took two of three games from Arkansas-Little Rock to win its first Sun Belt series.
Men’s Basketball: Williams, Stevens Lead Jaguars
South Alabama, which had already clinched a spot in the Sun Belt Tournament in New Orleans, returned home for Senior Night against Troy.
Ken Williams scored 28 points, one shy of his career high, and went 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. Barrington Stevens III set a career high with 19 points and made five 3-pointers. Williams and Stevens accounted for all five of South Alabama’s points in the final 25 seconds.
Dionte Ferguson played 36 minutes and finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds for his team-leading fourth double-double of the season. He had 13 points and seven rebounds in the second half.
Troy’s Musa Abdul-Aleem scored 37 points and made eight 3-pointers, and Wesley Person added 25 points. South Alabama pulled ahead with an offensive surge around the midway point of the second half.
South Alabama finished the regular season 11-20 overall and 9-11 in conference play. Troy finished 10-19 overall and 5-15 in the Sun Belt.
The Jaguars will face Arkansas-Little Rock in the Sun Belt Tournament on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Softball: Cajuns Take Saturday Doubleheader
Louisiana-Lafayette won both games of Saturday’s doubleheader at Jaguar Field, 3-2 and 9-3.
In the opener, South Alabama scored twice in the bottom of the sixth inning. Emily Messer led off with an infield single, and freshman Kristian Foster was hit by a pitch, with Kaleigh Todd entering to run for her. Messer scored on Chloe Rathburn’s RBI single, and Todd scored on Amanda Minahan’s two-out, bases-loaded walk before Amanda Herron popped out to end the inning.
Messer drew a one-out walk in the seventh, but Todd struck out swinging and Stephanie Pilkington flied out to left field. Messer went 2-for-3 with a run scored, and Rathburn went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Devin Brown allowed two earned runs on two hits in 3 2/3 innings, striking out three and walking five. Kalen McGill pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief and allowed one unearned run on four hits, with one strikeout and no walks.
In the second game, Louisiana-Lafayette scored in all but one inning, including three runs in the second and two in the seventh. Messer went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Pilkington went 2-for-3 and Rathburn went 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Brown took the loss.
Softball: Jaguars Win Sunday Finale 8-5
South Alabama took a 4-3 lead in the third inning Sunday, scored three runs in the fifth and added an insurance run in the sixth to beat Louisiana-Lafayette 8-5.
Blair Johnson went 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI. Kaitlyn Griffith went 1-for-2 with a run and three RBIs, Pilkington went 1-for-4 with two RBIs, and Rathburn went 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
Brown earned the win to improve to 8-4, and McGill recorded her third save. South Alabama is 16-5 overall and 1-2 in Sun Belt play.
Baseball: Jaguars Win Series Against UALR
South Alabama dropped the series opener to Arkansas-Little Rock 4-3, then won the next two games 1-0 and 3-2. In the opener, Cole Billingsley went 3-for-4 with a run scored and a walk, and Kevin Hill pitched five innings, allowing one hit with seven strikeouts and four walks.
Daniel Martinez drove in the only run of the 1-0 win.
The finale went 11 innings. Martinez led off the 11th with a single to right field, and Garrett DeGallier walked. Pinch hitter Cameron Cummings then grounded to shortstop, whose throw to third base went wide, allowing Martinez to score the winning run.
South Alabama improved to 11-5 overall and 2-1 in Sun Belt play. Arkansas-Little Rock fell to 4-7 and 1-2.
