South Alabama rallied from 22 points down to win 61-59 at Old Dominion in its Sun Belt Conference basketball opener on Saturday night.

Isiah Gaiter’s backdoor layup off a pass from Marshall Kearing put the Jaguars up to stay with nine seconds remaining. South Alabama improves to 9-5 overall with its fourth straight victory.

Here’s video of the winning play:

The Jaguars trailed 36-22 at halftime vs. the homestanding Monarchs (4-9, 0-1) and were down 49-27 with 14:09 remaining in the game. That’s when South Alabama began mounting its comeback, scoring 15 straight points over the next four minutes to shave the deficit to six.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Kearing and Gaiter made it a 2-point game at 55-53 with 5:30 left. Then Tyrell Jones’ 3-pointer gave the Jaguars their first lead of the second half at the 4:05 mark.

After the Monarchs went back up 57-56 on Chaunce Jenkins’ jumper with 3:47 to play, Jones hit another 3 to give the Jaguars a 59-57 advantage. ODU’s Vasean Allette then tied the game with a jumper in the lane with 2:11 left.

South Alabama missed a pair of shots, but got the ball back when Kearing stole it with 33 seconds left. That set up the winning play for the Jaguars, who shot 51% from the field in the second half, 60% (6-for-10) from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.

Gaiter led South Alabama with 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds, while Jones had 12 points. Kearing had six points, six rebounds, three blocks and three steals in 17 minutes off the bench.

Allette led ODU with 15 points, while R.J. Blakney had 12. The Monarchs went just 2-for-15 from 3-point range in the game.

South Alabama is back home for its next game, vs. Appalachian State on Tuesday. Tip-off for that game is set for 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.