Box Score MOBILE, Ala. ? Brandon Davis had 27 points, including a 15-of-20 effort from the free-throw line, as No. 1 seed South Alabama held off No. 8 New Orleans 81-77 on Sunday afternoon in Sun Belt Conference Tournament quarterfinal action at the Mitchell Center.
Daon Merritt had 15 points and Demetric Bennett tallied 14 as the Jaguars (26-5) advanced to Monday's 6:30 p.m. semifinal game against the Middle Tennessee-Troy winner.
UNO senior guard Bo McCalebb had 25 points and surpassed former Navy great David Robinson for 21st place on the NCAA all-time scoring list. McCalebb finished his UNO career with 2,679 career points.
Senior James Parlow had 13 points, while Kyndall Dykes and T.J. Worley each had 12 points off the bench for UNO (19-13).
USA shot 49 free throws, marking the most attempted against a UNO team in school history. The two teams combined for 53 fouls.
The biggest foul came with 19.2 seconds left. With UNO trailing 77-75 after McCalebb made two free throws, the Jaguars turned it over at halfcourt.
McCalebb then drove the lane and made a layup but was called for a charge. USA's Domonic Tilford then made a pair of free throws to make it a two-possession game. Tilford iced it with two more free throws with 10 seconds remaining to make it 81-77.
“I'm really proud of these guys,” said UNO head coach Joe Pasternack. “They put up a winning effort, a championship effort against the best team in the league.”
Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field, with UNO hitting at a 51 percent clip. USA out-rebounded UNO 29-20 (9-6 offensive).
In the first half, UNO shot 52 percent from the field and came back from a seven-point deficit in the final four minutes. Worley, who had five points during the stretch, banked in a layup with four seconds remaining to tie it at 39-39 at halftime.
UNO started the second half with a 9-3 spurt to grab a 48-42 lead with 15:29 left. UNO led 61-59 with 9:11 to play before the Jaguars used a 7-0 run to take a lead it would never give up.
UNO finishes 2007-08 with its most wins since 1997 and tied a school record with nine road victories.
The Privateers were trying to advance to the Sun Belt Conference semifinals for the first time since 2004.
