A poor start doomed South Alabama in its Sun Belt Conference tournament opener on Thursday and kept the Jaguars from mounting a repeat of last year’s run to the championship game.

Georgia Southern led throughout in a 76-71 victory at the Pensacola (Fla.) Bay Center, dominating South Alabama on the glass and building double-digit leads in both halves. The eighth-seeded Jaguars — whose season ends at 16-16 — got within two in the closing minutes, but never took control of the game despite 21 turnovers by the No. 9 Eagles (9-23), who advance to meet top-seeded Appalachian State at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

“It’s a different feeling this time around,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “Last year, we were in this (post-game interview) room multiple times. You look around and it brings back memories, but that’s what a one bid league is — one team’s gonna leave very happy, the rest are going home. We just happened to not play well today and got sent home. It’s hard. I hate it for our kids.”

South Alabama lost despite a career effort from senior forward Marshall Kearing, whose 20 points were the most of his Jaguars career. The 6-foot-9 Australian added 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, almost singlehandedly keeping his team in the game.

Kearing was one of five players suiting up for the Jaguars for the final time on Thursday, along with guards Tyrell “Turbo” Jones, Samuel Tabe, Isiah Gaiter and Judah Brown. Jones, like Kearing a three-year contributor, played all 40 minutes and led South Alabama with 22 points, 15 of that coming at the free-throw line.

“I feel proud of myself for going out like I did,” said Kearing, whose previous career-high in points was 15 vs. Louisiana in 2023. “I was just trying to aggressive and bring the energy that I needed to bring in this type of situation.”

Georgia Southern led by 12 at 58-46 with 11:29 to play, but South Alabama chipped away at the lead down the stretch. Jones and Kearing did most of the offensive work, with Jones’ two free throws cutting the Eagles’ lead to 69-67 with 1:39 remaining.

Kearing got a rebound on the other end, and South Alabama had a chance to tie or take the lead. Jones missed a 3-pointer with around a minute to play, and Georgia Southern’s Malik Tidwell buried a 3-pointer with 17.2 seconds left — after the Eagles had grabbed a crucial offensive rebound — to go up by five and essentially ice the game.

“We had a shot there inside of a minute,” Riley said. “(Jones) had a pretty good look to take the lead. We had opportunities throughout the half. Our guys bounced back and gave honest effort and we kept fighting and stayed together and we did have our chances down the stretch.

“But I tell my teams this all the time — when you play the right way, when you give everything you have to the game, it gives back to you. And we came out the way that we came out this game, in this type of moment, flat for 13 minutes. So when we had a chance late, the game didn’t give back to us.”

South Alabama beat Georgia Southern 78-65 in the lone regular-season meeting between the two teams on Feb. 7, but the Eagles played like clearly the better team on Thursday. They held a sizable 49-32 edge in rebounds and shot 50% as a team — 56% in the first half.

South Alabama had won six of its last eight games coming into Thursday, a run they started with that victory over Georgia Southern exactly one month prior. But whatever momentum they carried into the postseason faded quickly in the tournament, as they fell behind by double-digits less than 10 minutes into the game.

“I didn’t think we’d come out flat but we did,” Riley said. “I didn’t ever think we really had ‘pop’ the whole game, to be honest with you. They helped us out some with how they were turning the ball over and it gave us a little bit of momentum. We didn’t capitalize on nearly enough of those. If we would have, I think we might have won the game.”

Tabe scored 20 points and sophomore forward Julian Margrave 15 during the regular-season meeting, but the Eagles never allowed either to get rolling on Thursday. Margrave was scoreless in 15 minutes — missing all three of his 3-point attempts — while Tabe scored just seven in 16 minutes while sitting out much of the first half in foul trouble.

Most of the credit on the Georgia Southern end went to freshman forward Avantae Parker, who was locked up on Tabe most of the day. Parker finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks on Thursday.

“They tweaked some things that we really weren’t ready for in the first game,” Georgia Southern coach Charlie Henry said. “But we made some adjustments (Thursday). … We guarded Tabe with Avantae, and Avantae really stuffed his stat sheet for us — 12 rebounds, also had two steals, six blocks. So he was awesome. He did a great job on Tabe and really neutralized him.”