MOBILE, Ala – Nothing went right for Southern Miss on their trip to Mobile, falling to South Alabama 85-54. The Golden Eagles never saw the lead and were outplayed in almost every facet of the game.

“Sometimes in basketball, especially in a long season these things happen. I didn’t think that we played with our normal defensive intensity.” Southern Miss head coach Jay Ladner said.

South Alabama started the game on a quick 9-2 run, setting the night’s tone. Jaguars center Kevin Samuel had a quick eight points early, all coming on dunks, establishing the Jaguars in the paint.

The Jaguars completely neutralized Felipe Hasse in the first half. They not only held him to zero points, but they also did not even let him take a shot.

“He sometimes is too unselfish, and I thought he passed up some good looks and of course he is trying to get other guys involved. But he is such a good scorer and such an integral part of our offense, and we needed him.” Ladner said.

Not only did Southern Miss struggle to get Hasse involved, but Austin Crowley also had a very quiet first half. The entire night, he was a complete non-factor, with just seven points and one assist. The last time these squads got together, Crowley had 25 and was an essential part of the offense to lift them to victory.

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Charlie Luttrell

South Alabama led 42-27 at halftime, shooting 54.5% from the floor to Southern Miss’s 50% from the floor. The difference in the first half was the turnovers. The Golden Eagles turned the ball 12 times to Jaguar’s two turnovers. The Jaguars were able to benefit from the Southern Miss turnovers by scoring 11 points off of them.

“If you looked at our shot charts, and where we were taking shot, we were just all over the place, piled up around the basket. We just couldn’t finish.” Ladner said.

In the second half, Hasse got on the board immediately with a layup and the foul with the free throw. However, Southern Miss went on almost an eight-minute scoring drive to extend the lead out to 20, which was just too big of a deficit for the Eagles with the way they were shooting.

“We had to start doing things defensively to basically gamble and try to create some turnovers and hopefully give us a few extra possessions, but they did a good job of managing the clock.” Ladner said.

At the end of the second half, Crowley drove right of the basket and slipped on some perspiration off the court, and looked as if he may have injured his hamstring. He asked for a sub and immediately went to the locker room.

“The trainer said that he could have gone back in, but at that point we were down 22 or something like that, and I just didn’t feel like it was worth the risk with everything in front of us to put him back in.” Ladner said.

Southern Miss shot just 33% in the second half, which on the road is a number that will not win you too many basketball games. They shot just 24% from the three-point range compared to 41% from South Alabama. They outplayed in every facet of the game, and Ladner just wanted to put this one in their rearview mirror.

“You got to give South Alabama credit. I thought they played great. They have been playing really well, of course we were aware of that. And tonight they were the better team.” Ladner said.

Southern Miss fell to 24-5 and 12-3 in conference play. They welcome Georgia Southern to Reed Green on Saturday in the home finale at 12 PM.