MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama has made a habit of improbable comebacks the last two years, and it pulled off another one Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.
The Jaguars rallied past Jacksonville State 83-80 in double overtime after trailing by 10 with 1:26 left in regulation and by six with 16 seconds remaining. South Alabama (1-1) scored nine straight points in the second overtime to take control, then held on when the Gamecocks (1-1) missed a 3-pointer in the final five seconds.
The win kept the Jaguars from their first 0-2 start in 23 years, coming days after a 86-77 home loss to Ohio. South Alabama plays its first road game Tuesday at Central Florida.
“We don’t ever relent; we don’t stop,” coach Richie Riley said. “We keep fighting. Last year we won a bunch of games that looked a lot like that. And that’s part of our culture. We just keep fighting. It’s never over in our mind. And just made some huge plays, defensive steals, timely shots, timely execution, and found a way to dig one out that.”
The Gamecocks’ early control
Behind a barrelful of 3-pointers from Charles Lockett and Jordan Stiemke, Jacksonville State looked as if it might win going away. The Gamecocks led 32-23 at halftime, helped by a blistering final two minutes of the half in which they hit four straight 3s and outscored the Jaguars 12-3. They led 43-27 with a little more than 17 minutes left in regulation.
South Alabama cut the lead to six a few times, but JSU pushed it back to 10 at 64-54 with 1:26 to play.
The comeback
That is when the Jaguars went to work. A hook shot by Stephen Williams and a 3-pointer by Jalen Langsy pulled them within five with 50 seconds left, and JSU’s Leon Horner missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Williams made another hook with 17.6 seconds to go, though he missed the and-1 attempt, leaving it 64-61.
Stiemke made two free throws to put JSU back up five. Langsy then converted a three-point play to make it 66-64 with 7.2 seconds remaining. The Gamecocks’ Naas Cunningham committed an offensive foul before the inbounds pass, and Williams got to the basket to tie it with 4.2 seconds left. Lockett missed a long 3 at the buzzer, forcing overtime.
Two overtimes
Neither team took control in the first extra period. Lockett missed a 3 with 1.9 seconds left and South Alabama’s Aaron Goldstein clanked a three-quarter-court heave off the rim at the buzzer, sending the game to a second overtime tied at 72.
JSU scored the first three points of the second overtime on a Stiemke free throw and a short hook by Ethan Croley, but South Alabama took over from there. Back-to-back fastbreak layups by Langsy and Diego Roman put the Jaguars ahead, and Goldstein’s 3 gave them their first two-score lead of the night at 79-75 with 1:21 left.
Williams then tapped a JSU pass to Langsy, who hit two free throws for an 81-75 lead with 1:01 left. Stiemke answered with five straight points, including his sixth 3 of the night, to make it a one-point game with 22 seconds remaining.
Williams got the ball in the lane and missed, but grabbed his own rebound and put it back in with 10.8 seconds left for the final score. Cunningham missed a 3 in the closing seconds, and Goldstein pulled down the rebound to clinch it.
What it meant
“It was huge, because our guys are trying to figure out how to win,” Riley said. “We’ve not won any with this team yet coming into tonight and to go 0-2 and then the road gauntlet that we have, it’s going to be a tough three-game stretch here on the road. To be able to find a way to dig that out, the way that we did it too, I think is even bigger, because of the fight that we had to show and what we had to go through to come back and win that game.”
Williams finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Langsy had 25 with four steals and went 9-for-9 at the line. Goldstein scored 17, and Roman had seven assists for a team that shot 56% in the second half.
South Alabama had similar comebacks last season, including a double-overtime win over Louisiana-Monroe after trailing by 14 with 3:16 left and an overtime win over Arkansas State after trailing by 18 with 6:34 to play. But this is a different team, with 10 newcomers among its 14 players.
“It’s a cliché, but it’s not over till the clock hits zero,” said Williams, the only returning Jaguar who finished last season healthy. “So you just gotta keep playing hard until the buzzer sounds and that will determine everything.”
A brutal loss for JSU
Jacksonville State now heads to national power Houston on Wednesday at .500 instead of 2-0. The Gamecocks went 10-for-17 at the free-throw line, including 3-for-6 in the overtimes.
Stiemke led them with 27 points, hitting 6 of 16 3-pointers. Lockett added 25, making 8 of 13 from long range. No other Gamecock scored more than nine.
“I felt like we gifted it,” JSU coach Ray Harper said. “The game would’ve been over if we would’ve just held onto the ball and made free throws. And we didn’t make free throws like we needed to tonight.”
