Again, South Alabama’s basketball game came down to the final moments. And again, the Jaguars came up short.

South Alabama lost 66-64 to Old Dominion at the Mitchell Center on Thursday, the Jaguars’ fourth straight defeat. Those four losses have come by a total of 13 points, leading a disconsolate South Alabama coach Richie Riley to apologize to his team’s fans.

“It’s unacceptable that we don’t win some of these games,” Riley said. “Ultimately as the head coach, it’s on me. It’s my fifth year and we’ve not done this. We’ve never been through anything like this.

“So to our fanbase, I apologize. We pride ourselves in this program on willing ourselves to win. … This year so far, we’ve not neared that.”

On Thursday, South Alabama (8-13, 2-7 Sun Belt Conference) trailed for much of the game, including by nine with 7:11 remaining. The Jaguars then scored eight straight points to get back within one, and Old Dominion (12-9, 4-6) never led by more than three after that.

USA’s Tyrell Jones converted a steal into a pair of free throws and a 62-61 lead with 1:35 left, the first time the Jaguars were on top since late in the first half. Isaiah Moore then drew an offensive foul, but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and ODU got the rebound.

The Monarchs’ Mekhi Long and Chaunce Jenkins hit four straight free throws around a Moore runner to make it 65-64 with 25 seconds left. South Alabama called timeout with 14 seconds to play, but ODU’s Dericko Williams blocked Moore’s driving layup and the Jaguars had to foul Long with four seconds left.

Long made the first free throw to put the Monarchs up 66-64, but missed the second. South Alabama worked the ball to Greg Parham just before the horn, but Parham’s long 3-point attempt hit the backboard and then off the front of the rim before falling to the floor.

The 2-7 start to Sun Belt play is the Jaguars’ worst since 2013-14, the first year of Matthew Graves’ five-season tenure as head coach. That year’s USA team started 1-10 in conference, on the way to a 5-13 finish.

“As a group, we had just too many lack of effort, lack of toughness, lack of competitive fight,” Riley said. “Your team mirrors the head coach, and that’s not what we’ve been. So I’ve got to do better getting our guys to realize that our margin of error is incredibly small. Those plays within the 40 (minutes) all matter. You can’t take any of them off. We take a lot off — too many. It makes it incredibly hard to win.”

Moore led South Alabama with 19 points, while Parham had 13 and Jones 11. Center Kevin Samuel was held scoreless in 18 minutes, and sat on the bench most of the second half in favor of backup Marshall Kearing, who had four points and six rebounds in 16 minutes.

Jenkins led Old Dominion with 16 points, while Long had 11 with 13 rebounds. The Monarchs forced 17 South Alabama turnovers.

“There were so many plays throughout the game, you can’t just label one where you had a chance to win at the end,” Riley said. “… The play with 15 minutes and 47 seconds left in the second half matters just the same as a play with one minute left. You have to value every single possession and give everything you have to it, in order to have a chance to win. And we just didn’t do that, and we haven’t been doing that.”

South Alabama hosts in-state rival Troy at 3 p.m. Saturday.