Late Surge by Mississippi Valley put Eagles on Losing End
11/28/2010 3:33:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - Three Mississippi Valley State players, scoring 19 points apiece, would lead the Delta Devils past Georgia Southern, 75-64 at the South Padre Invitational Saturday afternoon. Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) led all scorers with 24 points, two shy of his career-high 26. Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds, six on the offensive end.
Mississippi Valley State's Terrance Joyner, Orlando Smith and D'Angelo Jackson shared team-high scoring honors with 19 points each. Smith crashed the boards for a game-high 14 rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
Jelani Hewitt tied a season-high five assists for the third time this season. Hewitt's 6-6 from the charity stripe marks a career-best which was previously recorded against Carver when the Oakland Park, Fla., native went 5-6 from the free-throw line. Drayton tied a season-best four steals while Justin Taylor's (Newnan, Ga.) five points marked a career-high and his first points as an Eagle.
A made free-throw by Drayton would tie the ballgame at 50, with 9:41 left in the game. The Eagles would go ahead with a layup by Taylor for their first lead since the 2:59 mark in the first half. Both teams would trade baskets until a Joyner three-pointer at the 6:57 mark would put MSV on a 21-8 run to close out the game with a victory.
The Eagles opened the first half with eight unanswered points before the Delta Devils got on the board with a field-goal to make it 8-2 at the 17:10 mark. MVS would rally from the six-point deficit to tie the game up 14-14 with 13:17 to go in the half. In a seesaw first-half battle, which saw six ties and eight lead changes, GSU found itself down 36-34 at half.
Georgia Southern will open up SoCon play when it returns to action on Thursday, December 2nd, to face The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. Both teams split the series last year, with the Bulldogs winning the first game, 68-43 and the Eagles taking revenge later in the season, winning 61-58 at Hanner.
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