South Alabama’s basketball team is playing so well of late, the opponent has hardly mattered.

Never was that more true on Thursday, when the Jaguars pummeled first-place Southern Miss 85-54 at the Mitchell Center. The victory was South Alabama’s sixth in seven games, during which the Jaguars (14-14, 7-8 Sun Belt Conference) have trailed for a total of 1 minute, 37 seconds.

“That was a great win,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “I don’t think I can say that enough times, because they have a great team. So for us to be able to come out and play like we did tonight and win like we did against a team like that, I think it says a lot about our growth as a team, how much better that we’ve gotten.

“… I challenged them to accept what’s coming on Thursday, the best record in our league by two games, a 9-game winning streak, one of the best mid-major teams in the country — to accept that challenge. Not only to accept it, but to want it. And our guys did.”

South Alabama’s 31-point margin of victory tied for its largest under Riley in a Sun Belt game, along with a 77-46 win over Little Rock last season. The Jaguars never trailed on Thursday, and led by at least 20 for the final 12-plus minutes of the game.

Southern Miss (23-5, 12-3) not only saw its 9-game winning streak snapped, but scored a season-low in points. Austin Crowley, Felipe Haase and DeAndre Pickney — who each came in averaging at least 13.9 points per game and combined for 61 in the Golden Eagles’ 76-72 victory over South Alabama in Hattiesburg on Jan. 19 — totaled just 16 on Thursday, nine by Crowley.

“Personnel is a huge part of it,” South Alabama guard Owen White said of South Alabama’s defense. “We understood their personnel so well. I was on (Haase) and you see 1-for-4 (shooting) and you might think I was doing a great job, but so much of that comes from (center Kevin Samuel) guarding (Denijay Harris). He’s taken one 3 this year. We’re going to sag off him, and there are times I get backscreened, but Kev is right there to help and they can’t get it.

“It’s stuff like that, really. Guarding your own man is really hard, but we did such a good job as a unit knowing who we can help off, who we need to be on for 3s and just working collectively. It was a really, really fun effort defensively, just understanding who we’re playing defensively, and just guarding them to their weaknesses.”

Judah Brown got the Jaguars going with a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the game, and South Alabama never led by fewer than three after that. The Jaguars were up 42-27 at halftime after forcing nine Southern Miss turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

Isaiah Moore led five Jaguars in double-figures with 16 points, to go along with six assists. Freshman Jamar Franklin scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half, while White had 14, Samuel 12 and Tyrell Jones 10.

“We just wanted to come out and execute from the jump, just play hard,” said the 7-foot Samuel, who made 6 of 7 shot attempts, four of them emphatic dunks. “That was the mindset. … This team coming in, we owed them from the last time playing at their spot. We just had the mindset we were going to come out and give it the whole 40 minutes, keep being aggressive and keep taking it to them.”

South Alabama made 13 3-pointers, four each by White and Franklin. Brown had three from long range, finishing with nine points.

Harris and Victor Hart were the only Southern Miss players in double figures with 10 points each. The Golden Eagles’ previous low in points came in a 60-48 victory at Vanderbilt on Nov. 11, their third game of the season.

“It all starts with our defense,” Riley said. “Our (coaching) staff, we really preach that. (Assistant coach) Rodney Crawford, he’s our defensive coordinator. Everybody puts in the time, but he came with a great plan. We made some adjustments, how we guarded them down there in a close loss in Hattiesburg, and it paid off.”

South Alabama closes out the home portion of its schedule with Senior Day on Saturday vs. Louisiana-Monroe. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.