Suddenly, South Alabama’s 4-0 start to Sun Belt Conference play seems like a long time ago.

The Jaguars dropped their third straight game and fourth in six outings on Thursday night, falling 62-58 Louisiana-Monroe at the Mitchell Center. It was South Alabama’s second loss in four days to the Warhawks, who came into Thursday in last place but swept the season series for the first time since 2018.

“Success is very fragile,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “We were playing at a high level for a month, month and a half, and we’ve (not been able) to sustain it. It’s a long season, and we’ve got to find it again.

“We’re hurting ourselves right now losing these games. We’re hurting our (Sun Belt tournament) seed, we’re hurting our position in the league. We’re just giving away a lot of games.”

South Alabama trailed nearly throughout on Thursday, falling behind by 13 points in both halves before a furious rally in the final 10 minutes. The Jaguars (14-8, 6-4 Sun Belt) actually took the lead at 52-51 with 5:27 remaining and were tied twice in the final 2:36 behind several big shots by Judah Brown, but could not finish off the comeback.

Tyreese Calhoun scored a game-high 22 points — including six 3-pointers — and accounted for seven straight ULM points at one stretch. His step-back jumper with 1:22 remaining gave the Warhawks (6-17, 2-8) the lead for good at 60-58.

South Alabama had several opportunities to tie or take the lead late, but missed two shots and committed two turnovers in the final 1:07. ULM’s Jalen Bolden stole the inbounds pass with 5 seconds left, then teammate Coltie Young — who scored 17 points — buried two free throws to ice the game.

Brown led the Jaguars with 21 points, while JJ Wheat added 12 and John Broom grabbed 10 rebounds. However, Barry Dunning and Myles Corey — South Alabama’s top two scorers this season — provided just 9 points on Thursday after averaging a combined 27.6 entering the night.

After averaging more than 75 points per game through its first 18 games of the season, South Alabama failed to reach 70 for the fourth straight contest. Since halftime of a 64-63 win over Troy on Jan. 18, the Jaguars have been outscored by an average of more than six points per half.

“We’re just not shooting the ball very well,” Riley said. “We have to do what we do and that’s move the ball side to side. … We’ve got 5 guys out there that can dribble, pass and shoot, and it’s been really good for us until recently. We’re trying. We’re playing different lineups, we’re making a lot of adjustments. It’s not for lack of effort.”

South Alabama is at Louisiana at 7 p.m. Saturday, the first of three straight road games that will also take the Jaguars to Coastal Carolina on Feb. 5 and to Akron for a Sun Belt-MAC Challenge game on Feb. 8. USA’s next home game is Feb. 14 vs. Marshall.