MOBILE, Ala. — Augustine Rubit scored a career-high 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as South Alabama beat Louisiana-Lafayette 88-64 on Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.
The win was the Jaguars’ fourth straight, their longest winning streak of the season, and their seventh in the last eight games. South Alabama improved to 15-9 overall and 12-4 in the Sun Belt Conference. Louisiana-Lafayette fell to 9-17 and 5-10.
Rubit Sets New Career High
Rubit, a junior, had matched his previous career high of 32 points earlier this season at Louisiana-Monroe. Against the Ragin’ Cajuns, he made 11 of 16 shots from the field and 12 of 16 free throws. The 12 rebounds gave him his 14th double-double of the season.
Mychal Ammons added a double-double of his own with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Ammons shot 7-of-11 from the field, including 2-of-4 from 3-point range, and scored 13 of his points in the second half.
Separation Before the Half
The game was close for most of the first half before South Alabama pulled away in the final four minutes. The Jaguars closed the half on a 9-0 run, capped by an Antoine Allen 3-pointer shortly before the break, to lead 39-28.
South Alabama stretched the lead to 17 points within the first five minutes of the second half. An 11-1 run later pushed the margin to 72-48 with 8:04 remaining.
Box Score Notes
Rubit and Ammons were the only Jaguars in double figures. Dre Conner had nine points and a team-high five assists, Javier Carter scored eight points and Allen added eight. Four other South Alabama players scored.
For Louisiana-Lafayette, Elfrid Payton scored 17 points and had a game-high seven assists. Kasey Shepherd added 16 points off the bench, and Shawn Long, the conference’s leading scorer, finished with 11. Bryant Mbamalu, the Sun Belt’s seventh-leading scorer, was held to four points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Coaches’ Comments
“It was good to see us put together what I thought was a total game for two halves,” South Alabama interim head coach Jeff Price said. “The first half, I thought we played really well and the second half we built the lead some. We’ve had these leads before and allowed them to go down so it was good to see our team be able to step up a little bit and build this thing up instead of let it go down. It happened in a lot of ways. I thought we turned it up defensively in the second half.”
Price said the Jaguars planned to work through Rubit in the post. “We felt like this was a game where we could have some success inside with him,” he said. “Our game plan will be consistent. We don’t have a lot of secrets here. We need to get the ball inside.”
Price said he had challenged Ammons on his rebounding during the week. “I talked to Mike a lot this week about how he wasn’t rebounding like he was earlier,” Price said. “Before the game, he needed to get me 10 and he got 11.”
Louisiana-Lafayette coach Bob Marlin credited the Jaguars’ frontcourt. “They shot the ball well,” Marlin said. “I thought Rubit shot it well from the perimeter as well as from the post. (Javier) Carter had a really nice game and made some jump shots. Mychal Ammons had a nice game outside. That might be the best front line in our league from the 3, 4, and 5 positions.”
“Mychal Ammons and Antoine Allen are very good defensively,” Marlin added. “They’re strong, they’re quick, and they’re aggressive.”
Up Next
South Alabama has a week off before traveling to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to face Middle Tennessee next Thursday at 7 p.m. The Blue Raiders (22-4, 14-1) lead the Sun Belt’s East Division and the overall conference standings.
“We know that’s going to be a really tough game on Thursday and we didn’t want to talk about it until we got this one out of the way,” Price said. “We’ll talk about it a lot this week and see if our guys can answer the challenge on the road. We’ve played well on the road, 5-2 on the road against some really good teams.”
