Trojans Drop Close Game At South Alabama

Thursday, February 7

Mobile, Ala.

7:05 p.m.

Troy University

South Alabama

2/7/2013 9:12:00 PM | Basketball (M)

By: Joe St. Pierre

Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. – A career-night by Emil Jones proved to not be enough against South Alabama. The Trojans (10-14, 5-8) stayed close at the end, matching the Jaguars (13-9, 10-4) shot-for-shot, but eventually fell, 65-62.

“It was an extremely intense game,” said head coach Don Maestri. “This was a hard fought game by both teams. The thing that hurt us more than anything else was a stretch of three minutes where we stopped scoring.”

Augustine Rubit was the star for South Alabama, scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 boards. Emil Jones led the Trojans with a career-high 23 points.

The Trojans got up 43-35 on a jumper by Hunter Williams with 12 minutes to play, but the Jaguars went on a 20-5 run to take a seven point lead. Troy would cut the lead to two points on a 7-2 run of their own, with Jones scoring all seven.

Troy shot 39 percent (24-of-62) from the field and 24 percent (4-of-17) from beyond the arc. The Jaguars were 18-of-43 from the field (42 %) and 5-of-16 from beyond the arc (31 %). Despite shooting just 33 percent from the charity stripe in the first half, South Alabama finished 24-of-33, hitting its final 20 from the line. The Trojans were outrebounded 35-28.

Troy saw some success in the first half with getting to the basket, utilizing an extremely small lineup for much of the opening 20 minutes. The smaller lineup was still competitive on the glass, outrebounding the Jaguars 19-18.

The Trojans now travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to face the top team in the Sun Belt, Middle Tennessee, at 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

For more information on Troy Athletics, be sure to visit TroyTrojans.com. Fans can also find Troy on Twitter at @TroyAthletics or on Facebook at Facebook.com/TroyAthletics.