South Alabama opened Sun Belt Conference basketball play in emphatic fashion on Saturday, thumping James Madison 77-49 at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars never trailed after falling behind 2-0 early on, jumping ahead by double-digits before the first 10 minutes of game time had expired. South Alabama (8-4, 1-0 Sun Belt) led by as many as 34 points in the second half and held JMU (6-6, 0-1) to just 29% shooting in the game.

“I’m really proud of our dudes and the performance they had, especially defensively,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “That’s who we want to be. That’s our calling card, is our defense. It’s playing that zone with force and being disciplined and everybody doing their job, and today we did that. Our guys’ focus level was great, because we played a really good team.”

South Alabama guard Myles Corey — the Sun Belt’s leading scorer at better than 18 points per game coming into Saturday — pumped in a game-high 19 along with seven assists, while forward Barry Dunning added 16 with four rebounds. Redshirt freshman John Broom had a solid all-around day with seven points, seven rebounds and four steals.

South Alabama shot 51% as a team and made nine 3-pointers — three by Judah Brown and two each by Corey and Randy Brady. The Jaguars forced 15 turnovers by the Dukes, the defending Sun Belt tournament champions who were picked to finish second in the league this year.

“I know Christmas break is right around the corner; we told ourselves ‘This is the game,’” Corey said. “If we want to go home and make a good impression on our conference, we have to come out here and do what we do. And this game we came out with a hot start.

“We’ve been starting slow lately. So, we came out with a hot start and we just kept it on. And it just showed throughout the game.”

South Alabama led 34-26 at halftime after jumping out to leads of 27-8 and 30-10. James Madison ended the half on a 16-4 run to make a game of it, and cut the lead to seven early in the second half before the Jaguars went on a 14-0 run to end any chance of a JMU comeback.

Bryce Lindsey led JMU with 12 points, while Elijah Hutchins-Everett had 10. The Dukes made just 16 of 55 shots overall and only eight of 30 3-point attempts.

All in all, it was a great way to enter an extended holiday break for the Jaguars, who don’t play again until Dec. 30 at home against Mobile.

“A lot of these Christmases, when you’re a ball coach, you go home, and you either lose or you don’t feel good about your team — and Christmas is always fun because you’re with your family — but it’s on your mind. You’re kind of miserable about coming back. This year, that’s not the case.

“Being able to start 1-0 against one of the better teams in our league and the way that our guys are getting better and the way that these guys are (fun) to coach every single day, I’m going to enjoy Christmas maybe more so than I have in all my nine years of being a head coach.”

After the non-conference game vs. Mobile on Dec. 30, South Alabama resumes Sun Belt play Jan. 2 at Georgia State.