Even during what has been a frustrating South Alabama basketball season, one thing has remained constant — the Jaguars do not lose at home to Troy under Richie Riley.

South Alabama dominated wire-to-wire in a 77-60 victory on Saturday, scoring the game’s first eight point and leading by double-digits the entire second half. It was the Jaguars’ fifth win vs. the Trojans at the Mitchell Center in Riley’s five seasons.

More importantly, the victory snapped a four-game losing streak for the Jaguars, who are now 9-13 overall, 3-7 in the Sun Belt Conference. Two days after Riley publicly apologized for his team’s lack of effort in a 66-64 loss to Old Dominion on Thursday, South Alabama played arguably its most complete game of the season.

“The guys really responded today,” said Riley, whose team had lost four straight by a combined 19 points before Saturday. “I challenged them. We talked for probably 45 minutes to an hour (Friday) night after we watched film on Troy. It wasn’t about Xs & Os, it was about mentality and who we want to be. … They responded better than they have all year. It was a team effort. Everybody that stepped foot on the court showed up.

“If we show up every night and we give everything we have to this thing, then we eliminate some of these 2-point losses, 3-point losses, 4-point losses that come down to the end. I was happy with what our guys did and how they responded to the message.”

Troy (13-10, 5-5) lost for the fourth time in five games, the second straight by double-digits following a 72-57 defeat at Louisiana on Thursday. The Trojans got out-rebounded 37-22, and never got closer to the lead than five points after the game’s first two minutes.

Christyon Eugene led Troy with 17 points, while Aamer Muhammad added 10. Zay Williams and Kieffer Punter — who had combined for nearly 20 points per game this season coming in — totaled just 9 on Saturday.

Troy’s Christian Turner hit a pair of 3s early on, then Williams’ layup cut the South Alabama lead to 20-15 with 9:36 left in the first half. The Jaguars responded with Kevin Samuel’s one-handed alley-oop dunk off an assist from Isaiah Moore, and the rout was on.

South Alabama led 37-25 at halftime and by as many as 20 in the final two minutes. Moore led all scorers with 23 points — his third-highest point total of the season and his eighth game of 20-plus points — and also grabbed seven rebounds in 36 minutes.

“I felt like today we were together from the jump,” said Moore, now averaging 18.2 points per game this season. “We didn’t take any plays off. We just said from the beginning ‘it doesn’t what happens, we’re going to play defense and limit their points, try to get a stop every time.’ We call it ‘the kill. Get the kill every time.’”

Moore didn’t do it alone, however. Tyrell Jones had 15 points and three assists, while Greg Parham chipped in 13 points in 31 minutes off the bench.

Samuel had a nice bounce-back game after being held scoreless and getting benched for most of the second half vs. Old Dominion on Thursday. The Jaguars’ big man scored 10 points, grabbed 13 rebounds — six of them offensive boards — and blocked four shots.

“Obviously, Kev responded from the last game at a high level,” Riley said. “He had six offensive rebounds, 13 total, 5 of 6 from the field, four blocks, challenged and changed a lot of other ones. He just had a presence. You could tell, his mentality to start the game was very different. We need that from him every single game.”

South Alabama shot 52.6% from the field in the game, and made 6 of 13 3-point attempts. Troy did not shoot especially poorly (41.7% overall, 7 of 13 on 3s), but had no player with more than four rebounds.

Both teams excelled from the free-throw line, with Troy making 13 of 16 and South Alabama hitting 11 of 14.

Riley is now 8-1 overall vs. the Trojans, the only loss at Troy last Jan. 29. The Jaguars have not lost to their in-state rivals in Mobile since 2018, the final season under coach Matthew Graves.

“I was really proud of who we were as a team today,” Riley said. “That looked more like the bunch we have a chance to be moving forward.”

South Alabama hits the road next week, traveling to Arkansas State at 7 p.m. Thursday, then Louisiana-Monroe at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Troy is back home for four straight beginning Thursday, when it hosts Southern Miss at 6 p.m. The Trojans then welcome Texas State to Trojan Arena at 6 p.m. Saturday, followed by South Alabama Feb. 9 and Louisiana Feb. 11.