Eagle Comeback Bid Falls Short at UNCG
3/2/2010 3:18:00 AM | Men's Basketball
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Antonio Hanson (Ft. Worth, Texas) scored 14 of his team-best 20 points in the second half, but the Eagles comeback bid fell short in the last second as UNC Greensboro held onto the win, 81-79. With six three-point field goals, Hanson moved to second on the single-season list for treys made (98) and into a tie for fifth with Fernando Daniel on the GSU career list (181). The Spartans' Ben Stywall topped all scorers with a career-best 30 points and had the top rebound total with 11.
The outcome of the game placed the Eagles as the sixth seed in the South Division with a Game 4 meeting with the third seed in the North Division Chattanooga Friday night (14-17, in the final game of the day (9 p.m. approximate start). The Eagles finish the regular season 9-22 with a 6-12 mark in the Southern Conference.
Georgia Southern was down by as many as 20 points in the second half and 13 with 74 seconds left when Hanson hit two free throws and followed with a three to cut the Spartan lead to eight. Switching in the offensive and defensive units and sending UNCG to the line on each possession, the Eagles pulled within two, but couldn't get a final shot off at game's end. In the final 58 seconds, Georgia Southern scored 14 points, capitalizing on UNCG's misses from the foul line and getting clutch scores.
"We learned a valuable lesson tonight, if we don't play with a sense of urgency, we are going to struggle," said Eagles Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "I was proud of the way we fought to get back in the game. We can't wait until the last 13 minutes to play. We have to have a sense of urgency from the jump. There is no tomorrow."
UNC Greensboro shot 60.6 percent from the field in the first half with 20 field goals to 11 for Georgia Southern. Stywall accumulated 19 of his 30 points in the first 20 minutes off 9-10 shooting while Brian Cole and Mikko Koivisto had six points each at the break. Koivisto would finish with 12 as the only other Spartan in double figures in scoring.
After falling behind 12-20 in the first half, the Eagles went on a 13-5 run to tie the game at 25 all. Sophomore Colby Wohlleb (Boca Raton, Fla.) had 18 points coming off four treys and added three rebounds, including five points during the run to help GSU get within three before Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) tied the game on a layup and "and one." Powers finished with 15 points and narrowly missed his third straight double-double with nine assists.
The Spartans held the lead through the remainder of the half, but the Eagles stayed within striking distance as Antoine Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) and Tyler Troupe (Gallatin, Tenn.) and Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) kept the game close toward the end of the first period. Stywall scored six points in the final 2:40 to help the Spartans grab an eight-point lead before the break.
Georgia Southern's 10 team total three-pointers against the Spartans put the 2009-10 season total at 224 for the year, six higher than the previous single-season record held by the 1991-92 Eagle squad (218).
