South Alabama basketball dominates Georgia Southern 87-71

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - South Alabama pulled away early and cruised to an 87-71 Sun Belt victory over first-place Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center in front of a national audience on ESPNU.

The Jaguars set the tone from the opening tip. After Georgia Southern struck first with a three-pointer, South Alabama answered with an early run and took control for good.

Adam Olsen led the way, knocking down six three-pointers on his way to a game-high 22 points. Chaze Harris sparked the Jaguars on both ends, finishing with 21 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

Inside, Stephen Williams scored 19 points on eight-of-nine shooting and grabbed nine rebounds as South Alabama dominated the paint, outscoring the Eagles 46-20.

Strong shooting performance

The Jaguars shot nearly 60 percent from the floor and better than 63 percent from beyond the arc, taking a 44-32 lead into halftime.

Early in the second half, Olsen buried a fast-break three-pointer to push the margin to 17. Georgia Southern cut a nearly 20-point lead to 10, but the Jaguars answered every run with timely buckets inside and from deep to keep control the rest of the way.

South Alabama closed strong in front of the home crowd, sealing the victory and handing Georgia Southern its first conference loss.

“I’m coming in with the same confidence every game. You always just trust the work. If the shot’s not going in, the next one’s going in. I don’t care if I miss 15 in a row, the 16th is going in,” said Olsen. “Ten of the next 15 games are home, so we’re just excited to show our product in front of our home fans.”

Head coach Richie Riley said it was his team’s best performance of the season and believes the home win will give the Jaguars a big confidence boost moving forward.

“Really good win for us. To be able to win a game like that, for our confidence, hopefully that helps our guys moving forward. I’m really proud of this group. We’re growing up in a lot of ways and we’re going to continue to get better,” Riley said.

With the win, South Alabama improves to 12-5 overall and 3-2 in Sun Belt play. The Jaguars are back home Thursday night, hosting Arkansas State at the Mitchell Center.