SAVANNAH, Ga. – Ike Smith scored a career-high 26 points, and Georgia Southern shot 53 percent in the second half to pull away from Florida A&M and top the Rattlers 83-72 in the Savannah Invitational Men's Basketball Tournament Friday afternoon in the Savannah Civic Center.

Mike Hughes netted 19 points for Georgia Southern (2-3), and Jake Allsmiller chipped in 18 points. B.J. Gladden scored eight, and Coye Simmons corralled 10 rebounds. Tookie Brown matched his career high with seven assists.

Desmond Williams collected 19 points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals to lead Florida A&M (2-4). Marcus Barham added 12 points and six rebounds, and Leon Williams scored 10.

The story
Georgia Southern shot 36 percent from 3-point range, making 15 and taking 42, one shy of the school record. The Eagles made 17 of 32 from the floor in the second half, including 8 of 19 from downtown.

Allsmiller made five of his first eight from 3-point range and netted 15 points in the first half, while Smith scored 20 and Hughes added 15 in the second period.

The Eagles used a 15-6 run midway through the second frame to build a 14-point lead. Hughes hit three triples during the stretch, and Simmons capped it with a putback to make the score 66-52. FAMU chipped away at the margin, and a 3-pointer by K'Ja Johnson made the score 75-68 with 4:18 to go. Brown answered with a pair of driving layups to help push the lead back to double digits, and the Rattlers never threatened from there.

Quotables from head coach Mark Byington
"I thought we were playing pretty well the first 12 minutes, but right now, we have lapses, where we're out of rhythm. I thought in the second half, a couple guys were about to come out of it. We're just not playing the best basketball we can. Maybe our confidence is a little shaken by going on the road and playing three hard teams, but just getting a win and getting some momentum can help us."

"Offensively in the first half, we were out of sync. We got some good shots. I don't care how many 3s we take as long as they are good shots. If we're shooting 35 percent from the 3-point line, that's the same thing as shooting better than 50 percent from two. I thought Mike Hughes stepped up in the second half, and we needed Jake Allsmiller in the first half."

"Both Ike and Mike played with foul trouble. I thought both of those guys were playing well and doing some good things, but foul trouble took them out. I was proud that when they got back in there, they got right back in the flow of the game, and that's not easy. Those two played great in the second half, especially."

Next up
Georgia Southern concludes play in the Savannah Invitational by taking on Radford Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the Savannah Civic Center.

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