Georgia Southern Falls to Texas Tech
11/24/2010 6:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LUBBOCK, Texas - Early foul trouble from the Eagles, coupled with 53.1 percent shooting from the floor for the Red Raiders helped Texas Tech defeat Georgia Southern 103-79 Tuesday night at the United Spirit Arena.
Ben Drayton III (St. Mary's, Ga.) was the Eagles' leading scorer for the second straight game, scoring a season-high 21 points with five assists, that ties a team best for the season. Cameron Baskerville's (Marietta, Ga.) game-high 13 rebounds was a season high for Georgia Southern and a career high for the sophomore forward. Texas Tech's David Tairu was the leading scorer on the night with 22 points while Robert Lewandowski led the Red Raiders with eight rebounds.
Georgia Southern crashed the boards 39 times, two more than Texas Tech, for its second-best rebounding total of the season. The Eagles outshot the Red Raiders 42.9 percent from behind the arc in the first-half and stayed even at 50 percent in the second half. The Eagles also outscored the Red Raiders 36-32 in the paint.
Georgia Southern came out of the half down 49-38. The Eagles cut the lead to 10 on three separate occasions over a 1:08 period thanks to a made free-throw basket by Baskerville and two layups by Rory Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.). Two field-goals by Lewandowski and a shot made by Tairu would bring the lead up to sixteen with 16:07 to play in the game. A trey by Tré Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.), layup by Spencer and a jumper by Jelani Hewitt (Oakland Park, Fla.) would answer to Texas Tech's shots made to keep it a sixteen-point, 66-50 game with 11:44 left in the contest. An 18-10 run by the Red Raiders that included 4-6 from behind the arc, would make it 84-60 with 5:58 to go. The Eagles scored 11 more times with Drayton scoring the Eagles final three points.
The Eagles put points on the board first, winning the tipoff that lead to a three-pointer by Hewitt. The Red Raiders countered with back-to-back goals, including a trey by Tairu. A layup by Drayton tied the game 5-5 with 17:40 left in the half. Tairu's layup with 14:09 left in the first would bring the Red Raider lead to five points but a three-pointer by Bussey cut the lead to a two point, 16-14 score at the 13:53 mark. Fouling woes by Georgia Southern put Texas Tech in the double bonus with 9:58 to go in the half. Converting 7-8 from the charity stripe and shooting 50 percent from the field helped Texas Tech go into halftime up 49-38.
Five Eagles scored in double-figures with Drayton, Spencer, Hewitt, Baskerville and Bussey totaling 21, 17, 13, 11 and 10 points, respectively. The 10-points scored by Bussey ties a career-high and Drayton's 40 minutes played against Texas Tech matches a career-high from 2009 when Georgia Southern played College of Charleston on February 19th. The eight rebounds grabbed by Hewitt is a career best.
Georgia Southern falls to 2-3 on the year and will travel to South Padre Island, Texas, to play Chicago State on Friday, November 26th, as part of the South Padre Island Invitational. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
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