South Alabama holds off Troy 64-63, stays in first place in Sun Belt Conference

Barry Dunning had one of those “kid shooting baskets in his backyard” moments on Saturday, and he did it for his hometown team against its biggest rival.

Dunning sank two free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining to give South Alabama a 64-63 victory over Troy in front a of season-best crowd of 5,148 at the Mitchell Center, keeping the Jaguars (15-5, 6-1 Sun Belt Conference) alone in first place. Dunning, Alabama’s Mr. Basketball at Mobile’s McGill-Toolen Catholic School in 2022, then got a hand on the Trojans’ inbounds pass to keep them from getting off a clean shot at the buzzer.

Dunning said he was thinking of his father, Barry Sr., when he went to the free-throw line in the final seconds.

“It just goes back to when I was a little kid,” Dunning said. “We shoot free throws every day after practice, but I gave my dad a game ball because he used to take me to the YMCA downtown, and we would just shoot free throws.

“A lot of my game comes from my Pop’s foundation, so I had to give him the game ball. I just remember the times at the YMCA, ‘It’s just you and the rim, son,’ just making free throws. I got his name, so that was us making that free throw together.”

That Dunning even had to be the hero at the end was a bit of a surprise, as the Jaguars led by 20 at halftime and by 10 with 4:31 to play. But Troy (11-7, 4-3) ramped up its defense in the second half, forcing 14 South Alabama turnovers — six straight at one stretch.

The Trojans got within one on Tayton Conerway’s 3-pointer with 1:20 left, then took their first lead since the first four minutes of the game at 63-62 when Jackson Fields hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 11.6 seconds remaining. Myles Corey’s driving layup for South Alabama missed and the ball went out of bounds off Troy with 2.9 seconds left, allowing the Jaguars to set up their final play.

Corey lobbed the ball in to Dunning, who got off a shot just as he was fouled by Troy’s Thomas Dowd. After Dunning made the free throws to put the Jaguars up one and then tipped the throw-in, the Trojans’ Myles Rigsby got to the loose ball and put up a half-court 3-pointer that missed badly at the buzzer.

“What a moment,” Riley said of Dunning. “He’ll remember that for the rest of his life. I gave him a big hug in the locker room. I said, ‘That’s why you came back home, man, for moments like that, to get to do that.’

“…It couldn’t have had a more special ending. I wish it wouldn’t have come down to that. I wish we would have cruised like we should have.”

Dunning led the Jaguars with 14 points and eight rebounds, while Judah Brown added 12 points — all in the first half — and Randy Brady chipped in 11 points with six boards. JJ Wheat scored 10, while John Broom had nine points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Conerway was the only Troy player in double-figures scoring, but took over the game in the second half. The senior guard finished with 23 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals despite sitting out a large chunk of the first half due to foul trouble.

“Our defensive intensity was better in the second half,” Troy coach Scott Cross said. “Because we were able to get some easier baskets, things opened up for us. Our guys got a little bit more confident. … It was just a momentum swing. And we had the momentum in the second half.

“They crushed us in the first half. Unfortunately, we didn’t show up and play the way we needed to in the first half. And they were lights out from the 3-point line.”

Despite its offensive and ball-handling woes in the second half, South Alabama’s Sun Belt-best defense didn’t take the day off. The Jaguars limited the Trojans to 35.1% shooting overall and 29% (9-for-31) from 3-point range and held them well below their season average of 74.1 points per game.

Troy went the final 8:25 of the first half without a field goal, making just two free throws during that stretch. Sparked by runs of 13-0 and 12-0, the Jaguars led 42-22 at halftime.

“Our defense held steady enough for us to be able to win,” Riley said. “You have games like this. There’s a lot of games where you don’t play your best for a half, sometimes the whole game.

“Those are the ones if you want to have a chance at the end of the year, you’ve got to find a way to some of those. Today we did that. Obviously we didn’t have our best stuff, but we found a way to gut it out and win it. We’ll take it. We certainly ain’t giving the win back.”

South Alabama is now 7-0 vs. the Trojans in Mobile under Riley, and continues its best start to Sun Belt play since the 2007-08 season. That happens to be the most-recent time the Jaguars reached the NCAA tournament.

Saturday also marked the first time the Jaguars have won a game decided by a single possession since Dec. 8, when they beat Jacksonville State 76-74. They were in a similar spot a week ago, but lost 71-63 in overtime to Old Dominion.

“Man, that was super exciting,” Brady said. “We started off good in the first half, kind of sloppy in the second half, but we pulled it off. A win is a win.”

South Alabama hits the road to face Louisiana-Monroe at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Troy is back home to face Southern Miss at 6 p.m. Thursday.