Appalachian State made South Alabama work for it, but the Jaguars marched on in the Sun Belt Conference tournament Thursday.

The Jaguars held off the Mountaineers 68-61 at the Pensacola (Fla.) Bay Center, rallying from eight points down in the first half to win for the ninth time in 11 games. South Alabama (17-15) advances to the quarterfinal round, where it will meet top-seeded Southern Miss at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

“I’m just incredibly proud of our guys,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “It’s been a really fun year coaching these dudes, and to be able to find a way to survive and advance in this first round meant a lot — because I don’t want to stop coaching them.”

Behind 14 first-half points from Terence Marcum, Appalachian State (16-16) led 37-29 with 1:22 remaining before halftime. However, South Alabama scored five straight points to regain momentum and trailed by just 3 at the break.

The Jaguars never trailed after the 15-minute mark, with center Kevin Samuel scoring eight points in a 3-minute stretch to put South Alabama on top to stay. The 7-foot Samuel finished with 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting and turned in his usual solid work protecting the rim, grabbing 15 rebounds (five on offense) and blocking six shots.

“I wanted to be more aggressive,” said Samuel, the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year this season. “I was kind of feeling around a little bit in the first half, but it’s win or go home, so I wanted to leave it all out there in the second half. And that’s what I did.”

Nevertheless, South Alabama led by just three on several occasions late, including 60-57 with 4:21 to play. All-Sun Belt point guard Isaiah Moore beat the buzzer with a long jump shot, then drove the lane for two more of his game-high 20 points to put the Jaguars up 64-57 with 2:12 left.

App State still wouldn’t go away, scoring four straight to make it a 64-61 game with 50 seconds left. That’s when South Alabama’s Owen White buried the last of his team’s nine 3-pointers to finally put the game away.

“I was open, so I had to shoot it,” White said. “I think the shot clock was going down. … If I don’t shoot that, I think we’re in a lot of trouble. So it was pretty much just reading the ball.”

White scored 14 points to join Moore, Samuel, Judah Brown (11) and Tyrell Jones (10) in double-figures for the Jaguars. Jones added eight rebounds, while Moore had seven assists.

South Alabama got very little help off the bench, with Greg Parham, Jamar Franklin and Marshall Kearing totaling only one point, two rebounds and a blocked shot in 15 combined minutes. Parham, averaging 9.5 points per game, played just six minutes — all in the second half — and scored only one point after injuring his right knee during pre-game warmups.

“It was an odd deal,” Riley said. “The last play of warmups, he kind of (landed) and tweaked his knee. He usually comes in around the 15-minute mark (of the first half), and I wanted to put him in and he said he couldn’t go. … They worked on it, and then he came out in the second half and said that he could go.

“… I’m glad he’s OK and he was out there in the second half. We’ll make sure he lives in treatment for the next 24-to-36 hours so he can get out there on Saturday.”

Harcum led App State with 17 points, but scored only three in the second half. CJ Huntley added 13, Donovan Gregory 12 and Xavion Brown 10, with Gregory — the Mountaineers’ leading scorer this season — playing just 28 minutes while sitting much of the first half in foul trouble.

South Alabama shot 48.2% for the game — 48.1 in the first half, 48.3 in the second. Appalachian State shot just 32.3% in the final 20 minutes after hitting for 42.9% in the first 20.

“South Alabama made a couple more plays than we did,” App State coach Dustin Kerns said. “They’ve got a really good team and they’re playing really well. … I thought it was a big stretch there in the second half where Samuel got a couple of offensive rebounds and scored. That really hurt us. We had trouble getting rebounds in the second half.”