WKRG.com » News Stream » Sports »

Hogs Edge Jaguars

By South Alabama Media Relations

Published: Thu, November 27, 2008 - 11:09 pm Last Updated: Thu, November 27, 2008 - 11:43 pm

Short URL: http://wkrg.com/a/21359/

For the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team, there’s no time to dwell on the past.

After falling in the final seconds to Arkansas Wednesday in the Coors Classic at the Mitchell Center, the Jaguars will turn around and play host to the USA Basketball Classic Friday and Saturday. The Jags will face Maine in the second of two contests in the opening round, with Tulane and UC Davis meeting at 5 p.m. to start the event.

The consolation contest will also tip off at 5 p.m. Saturday, with the two first-round winners playing for the championship a half-hour after the first game ends.

The Jaguars have dropped their last two outings — both against schools from BCS leagues — after Stefan Welsh connected on a three-pointer with two seconds to go last time out to give the Razorbacks a 79-77 victory. It was the Hogs’ first lead since over six minutes remained in the first half, and it ended USA’s 17-game regular-season homecourt win streak.

After scoring a team-high 23 points, hitting 6-of-11 from three-point range, against UA, Domonic Tilford enters the USA Basketball Classic as the Jags’ leading scorer with 18.7 points per contest. He’s connected on 46.2 percent from beyond the arc, averaging four threes per outing, since returning to action at the Billy Minardi Classic last weekend.

Brandon Davis recorded 18 points and eight rebounds in the Coors Classic, as he continues to lead the squad with 8.8 boards per game. DeAndré Coleman grabbed a team-best nine rebounds last time out, including eight on the defensive end, with Ronald Douglas contributing a game-high four blocks and LaShun Watson took over as USA’s assist leader for the year after handing out a career-high five against the Razorbacks.

The Jaguars will face a Black Bear team that has dropped two contests in a row, including a loss to Providence from the Big East, after starting the campaign 3-0. Gerald McLemore leads Maine with 12.4 points per game, shooting 41.7 percent from long distance, while Mark Socoby adds 12.2 points and five rebounds per contest. The Black Bears are averaging 64.6 points per outing, but are allowing an average of 64.4 points as the opposition is hitting just 40.9 percent from the field.

USA and Maine have never met. The only America East Conference team the Jags have ever played is New Hampshire, with USA falling 66-65 in overtime to the Wildcats in the consolation game of the 1989 Indiana Classic.

The other first-round match-up pits a Tulane squad that is 3-1 entering play — the Green Wave’s only loss this season came at Texas, which is ranked in the top 10 of both polls — against 1-4 UC Davis. The Aggies have played just one of their first five contests at home.

This will be the first time that the Jags have hosted a multi-day tournament since December 1983. USA won that event by defeating Florida A&M and Auburn. It also marks the first occasion since the 1989-90 season that the Jaguars will play in two regular-season tournaments after advancing to the championship game of the Billy Minardi Classic, hosted by No. 3 Louisville, last weekend.