Fields' Lay-Up Gives Men's Basketball Last Second Win over Cleveland State
Fields’ (Jacksonville, Fla.) bucket capped off a game-ending 11-0 run as the Eagles even their record at 1-1.
“It was a hard-fought game,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I’m proud of our guys for showing some resiliency against a really, really physical basketball team. We could’ve cashed it in we were down nine with about 2 ½ to go. We were just very resilient and we followed what we wanted to do the last 10 minutes of the game. I told our guys that the only chance we were going to have to win is to spread the floor and score points with the clock stopped. We did a great job of getting to the line the last 10 minutes and making our free throws allowed us to get into our press and our press really bothered them.”
Four players scored in double-figures for Georgia Southern, led by senior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) who totaled a team-high 18 points off the bench. Senior Anthony Marshall (Lake Worth, Fla.) added a career-high 13 points, eight in the second half. Freshman Willie Powers (Gainesville, Fla.) and junior Julian Allen (Waterbury, Conn.) added 12 and 10, respectively.
The game-winning play started 94 feet away with five seconds remaining. Foreman broke into the open court and fed Fields with a long-range alley-oop pass, who laid it off the glass. It gave the Eagles their first lead since the 7:46 mark of the first half.
The Vikings (1-2) went without a point in the final 2:27 and without a field goal in the last 2:41.
“We got stops when we had to,” said Price. “In the last minute and a half we got some key stops and Anthony Marshall hit a huge 3’. The press created some problems. It took away some of their physicalness and made them speed up, which I don’t think they wanted to do.”
Marshall almost single-handedly brought GSU back. He converted a 3-point play with 1:15 left to close the deficit to five (70-65), then after a turnover, hit a 3’ from the right-wing to bring the Eagles to 70-68.
Graham finished off the comeback by blocking a dunk attempt on one end and tying the game with a lay-up at the other.
Foreman, who finished with nine assists, provided the key pass on each of GSU’s last four field goals.
CSU’s Cedric Jackson led all players with 21 points and also had nine assists and four steals.
The Eagles continue play at the Glenn Wilkes Classic Saturday afternoon against UAB. Tip-off is set for 2:15 p.m.
- Category: Men's Basketball
- Published on Friday, 16 November 2007 00:20
