The South Alabama Jaguars wrap up the non conference schedule beating the Hartford Hawks by the final of 77-53. This was the first ever match up between the Jaguars and the independent Hawks.
This game was a mismatch from the beginning. The Jags scored first, sixteen seconds into the game on a jumper in the paint by Kevin Samuel, and never looked back. The Hawks hit a three pointer at the 13:19 mark of the first half to get within 5 at 16-11. That is as close as the Hawks would get for the rest of the game.
South Alabama would build a steady lead. The Jags would lead by 11 at halftime the score was 38-27.
Both teams teams came out a little cold. The Jags didn’t score in the second half until the 18:24 mark. Hartford went scoreless for the first 4:35 of the 2nd half, hitting a three to cut the Jag lead to 17 at 46-29 . That score stopped a Jaguar 10-2 scoring run.
South Alabama would slowly increase the lead throughout the rest of the second half to twenty on two different occasions. The Jags would increase the lead to 25 points at 77-52 with 28 seconds left.
South Alabama’s leading scorer on the night were….
Isaiah Moore- with his usual 20 points and 2 rebounds
Greg Parham II- 13 points and 1 rebound
Kevin Samuel- 13 points and 10 rebounds Yet another double-double
And honorable mention and crowd favorite Adam Sizemore 3 points on a three pointer with 2 minutes of playing time.
The Jags shot 52.5% overall and 36.4% from 3 point land. Hartford shot 38.3% overall and 29.4% from behind the arc.
Game Notes:
Kevin Samuel had his 9th double-double this season.
The Jaguars had only 3 turnovers for the whole game.
Isaiah Moore scored 20 points for the 11th time this season.
Up next: Southern Miss comes to the Mitchell Center as the Jags continue their 4 game home stand. Southern Miss is the top team in the Sun Belt Conference. USM has an overall record of 23-4 and 12-2 in the Sun Belt. The Jags are in 10th place.
In the previous match-up on January 19th in Hattiesburg. Southern Miss had trouble with the Jags. The Golden Eagles used great shooting from the free throw line to beat the Jags by 4 points 76-72.
The Jags improve their overall record to 13-14 and 6-8 in the conference, with just 4 games remaining in the regular season.
