An 85-81 overtime loss at Coastal Carolina on Saturday sent South Alabama to worst Sun Belt Conference record after eight games in seven years.

The Jaguars are now 8-12 overall and 2-6 in the Sun Belt, their worst conference record in five years under Richie Riley. The 2015-16 team, coached by Matthew Graves, also started 2-6 on the way to an 8-12 final league record.

On Saturday, South Alabama fell behind by double-digits early and trailed by as many as 16 in the second half before hitting a barrage of 3-pointers (16 in the game) to force overtime. The Jaguars had a chance to win in regulation, but Judah Brown’s 3-point attempt hit off the front of the iron.

“We dug ourselves a hole in the first half with a terrible first half, but we fought back,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “We are in all of our games, but either you win or you lose, we make too many mistakes to win these games. … When you look at this game, you look at the clean look we had to win it and if we make that we win, which is true. But, what led to that, was our play in the first 15 minutes. We gave up easy basket after easy basket. We had terrible turnovers, and we dug ourselves a hole. Obviously, if there’s something to be proud of, is that we did fight back and had a chance to win it.”

Tyrell Jones’ sixth 3-pointer of the day gave the Jaguars their first lead at 71-68 early in the extra period. However, Coastal Carolina took the lead for good on Antonio Daye’s 3-point play with 3:04 remaining. The Chanticleers (10-9, 4-4) made all six of their free throws in overtime.

A key moment came at the 2:56 mark, when South Alabama’s Kevin Samuel missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Coastal Carolina got the rebound. Coastal’s Josh Uduje responded with a 3-pointer to make it 78-74 with 2:27 left and the Jaguars never again had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.

Uduje scored a game-high 33 points for Coastal Carolina, going 13-for-21 from the field and making three 3-pointers. Daye added 10 points and 11 assists, while Essam Mostafa had 19 points and 13 rebounds.

Jones had the best all-around game of his South Alabama career, scoring 25 points and adding six assists and five rebounds. Isaiah Moore had 19 points (including a season-best three 3-pointers) and nine assists, while Samuel had 12 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

South Alabama is back home Thursday, hosting Old Dominion at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.