Men’s Basketball Opens 2013 with Loss at UAB

FINAL STATS (PDF)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball stymied a high-scoring UAB offense on Wednesday night, but couldn’t get past the Blazers in the first game of 2013. UAB took the 65-61 victory as the Blazers withstood a late charge by the Eagles. Georgia Southern is back at Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday night against North Carolina A&T with tickets available for just $1.

“I think we are getting better every time we take the court,” said Head Coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young. “UAB didn’t press us tonight, but we still turned the ball over 23 times. We did a lot of things right, we rebounded the ball well and moved the ball very well. We did all the things it takes to win, but the turnovers hurt us tonight.”

The Eagles held UAB to its lowest output of the season at home as the Blazers scored 65 points behind 19 from Terrence Jones dropped 19 points with seven assists to lead the hosts while Rod Rucker added 16 points.

The Eagles were paced by 22 points from C.J. Reed who scored 22 points on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc. The senior, however, was responsible for eight of the Eagles’ 23 turnovers. Tre Bussey scored 17 points with a perfect 3-for-3 mark downtown.

Eric Ferguson posted a double-double for the fourth time this season and 11th time in his career with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Ferguson is three rebounds shy of the 500 rebound mark for his career. Ferguson also blocked two shots and lead the Eagles with three assists. As a team, Georgia Southern out-rebounded UAB 36-30 with a 12-11 edge on the offensive glass.

Kameron Dunnican had seven rebounds, a career-high, while matching his career-high with three blocks. Marvin Baynham added six points with three rebounds.

Georgia Southern led by as many as four in the early minutes of the game. UAB, however, was able to squeeze out a three-point advantage at the halftime interval, a lead that would grow to eight points as Georgia Southern was unable to score in the first three and a half minutes in the second half.

The Eagles’ would get within two points with 6:24 remaining before the Blazers took the lead back to nine points with 3:11 left. GSU made another run in the final minute of the game, cutting the UAB advantage to three points twice in the final 60 seconds. UAB made their free throws down the stretch to cement the 65-61 victory.

With the loss, Georgia Southern falls to 6-8 on the year while UAB improves to 8-6 in 2012-13

Next up for the Eagles is a home game against North Carolina A&T on Saturday night at 7 p.m. inside Hanner Fieldhouse. Tickets for the final non-conference game of the regular season are just $1 and can be purchased at the main entrance to Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday.

Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.

Category: Men's Basketball

Published on Wednesday, 02 January 2013 22:50