It didn’t come as easily as the previous three, but South Alabama rolled to its fourth straight Sun Belt Conference win and into sole possession of first place with a 76-62 victory over Arkansas State on Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.

Richie Riley’s Jaguars (12-4, 4-0) shook off some early turnover woes to win their fifth straight game overall by double-digits, getting a season-high 22 points from Elijah Ormiston and holding the Red Wolves (11-5, 2-2) to 31% shooting. South Alabama has won its first four conference games for the first time since 2008, which happens to be the most-recent time it reached the NCAA tournament.

“What we’ve been preaching this whole season is ‘chokeouts’; Riley’s been talking a lot about that,” Ormiston said. “Our mentality is to come in every game, it doesn’t matter who we play, it doesn’t matter what their ranking is. We’re just going to come out there and try to whoop their butt. And I was glad to be able to contribute to that.

“The beautiful thing about our team is, whether it’s me, whether it’s somebody else, we all love ‘whooping’ together. And every night’s a different guy’s night. Tonight happened to be mine.”

South Alabama, which came into Thursday leading the country in fewest turnovers per game (8.9), gave it away on their its four possessions and five times in the first 3-plus minutes vs. Arkansas State. Riley called timeout at that point to settle down his team, which was playing at home for the first time in 10 days and before a season-high crowd of 2,208.

What he told them worked, as Barry Dunning quickly scored seven of his 10 points to get the Jaguars back in the game. Three straight 3-pointers — one by Cantia Rahming and two by Judah Brown — gave South Alabama the lead for the first time, then consecutive 3s by John Broom and Ormiston put the Jaguars on top for good.

“I think we came out a little too juiced up,” Riley said. “I think a game like that, there’s some buildup to it. We haven’t had a game like that all year with this group where there was some buildup, there was some excitement, there was some people in the stands, a good crowd.

“And we came out just a little bit tight, pressing a little bit and made some mistakes. And I just wanted to settle them down. What I said in the huddle probably was not a ‘settle-down’ talk, but that was my intention of getting them over there, was to settle them down.”

Arkansas State pulled within five in the final minute of the half, but a four-point play by Ormiston — a 3-pointer and a free throw after he was fouled on the shot — with 0.3 seconds to go gave South Alabama a 41-31 lead at the break. The Jaguars never led by fewer than eight points in the second half, and were up by as many as 21 in the final four minutes.

The Red Wolves — playing without preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year Kobe Julien for the fourth straight game — tried to shoot themselves to victory, but were wildly unsuccessful. Arkansas State made just 12 of 49 3-point attempts and was only 21-for-67 from the field in the game.

Taryn Todd led Arkansas State with 18 points, while Joseph Pinion had 17 and Terrance Ford 12. Pinion had a team-high nine rebounds, but shot just 2-for-14 from 3-point range.

“The thing I know about our team is when we show up and we play the way we’re capable of playing and do what we do on the defensive end, take care of the ball, and if we make some shots, I trust our dudes to play against anybody,” Riley said. “… Does that mean we’re going to win every single game? No, it doesn’t guarantee we’re going to win, but it gives us a heck of a chance to be right there and have a chance to win.”

South Alabama shot 56.5% as a team, including 50% (12-for-24) from 3-point range. After the five early turnovers, the Jaguars gave the ball away just six times the remainder of the night.

In addition to Ormiston’s season-best scoring output, the Jaguars got contributions from throughout the lineup on both ends. Brown and Myles Corey both scored 11, while Dunning and Broom had 10 each.

Broom led South Alabama with nine rebounds and three blocks, while Corey had six assists and JJ Wheat four. The Jaguars won the rebounding battle, 37-34.

“We play like 10 guys, 11 guys deep,” Dunning said. “That just shows the versatility that we have on the team and just shows togetherness. It doesn’t matter who has the (big) game. Today, Elijah had a great game.

“… We’re just a team and we’re together and you can see the compassion, the love and the confidence that we have as a team. That showed today. That’s how we got the (win). We’ve got to remain humble, steadfast and on to the next one.”

South Alabama came into the night tied with Troy for first place in the conference, but the Trojans lost 74-73 at home to Texas State to fall to 3-1 in league play. The Jaguars continue their four-game home stand at 2 p.m. Saturday vs. Old Dominion.