BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Western Kentucky built a 23-point halftime lead and beat South Alabama 99-69 on Thursday night, handing the Jaguars their most lopsided loss of the season in the South Alabama Western Kentucky series.
The defeat dropped South Alabama to 15-13 overall and 7-9 in the Sun Belt Conference. Western Kentucky improved to 16-12 and 9-6 in league play.
The 30-point margin was the largest of the season for South Alabama and the worst loss in program history against the Hilltoppers. The 99 points were also the most the Jaguars had allowed in a game this season.
Hilltoppers Pull Away Early
The teams traded baskets in the opening minutes before Western Kentucky went on a 29-8 run over roughly the next eight and a half minutes. The Hilltoppers added a 7-0 run later in the half and led 53-30 at the break.
A.J. Slaughter scored 21 points in the first half for Western Kentucky, making 6 of 7 shots from the field, all four of his 3-point attempts and all five of his free throws. As a team, the Hilltoppers shot 64 percent from the field, just over 61 percent from 3-point range and 100 percent from the free-throw line in the first half.
South Alabama could get no closer than 17 points in the second half.
Arrow: ‘We Just No-Showed’
South Alabama head coach Ronnie Arrow said he was disappointed in his team’s effort.
“We just no-showed,” Arrow said. “That’s the second time this year that’s happened. I was just really disappointed with our effort. We didn’t stop anybody the whole time. We were scoring the first five minutes but we weren’t stopping anybody. Then we just stopped scoring and started going one-on-one. When we do that, bad things are going to happen.”
“We’re limited in depth and we’ve got to learn to take time off the clock and work the clock far better than what we did tonight, especially against a good team like that,” he said.
Williams Leads Jaguars
Tim Williams led South Alabama with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting. Gary Redus, Martino Brock and Javier Carter each scored 11 points.
Up Next
South Alabama closes its regular-season road schedule Saturday at Middle Tennessee. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN Plus and streamed on ESPN360.com.
