TAMPA, FLA. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball ran into uncharacteristically hot shooting South Florida squad on Wednesday night (November 23rd), falling 66-46 to the Bulls at the St. Pete Times Forum. The Eagles were cold from the field, shooting 36% to USF's 61%. The Bulls had their best night of the season from the field as the Eagles struggled shooting the ball for the first time this season.
"We had a ton of open looks at the basket that just didn't fall tonight," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "I am proud of our guys out-rebounding USF, but live-ball turnovers really hurt us tonight as well."
Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) paced the Georgia Southern (1-3) squad with a team-high 14 points to go along with a team-high eight rebounds. He also dished six assists. The Eagles out-rebounded the Bulls 30-25, giving Georgia Southern rebounding scalps against ACC and Big East opponents.
South Florida (4-2) shot over 50% from the field for the first time this season after averaging a 43.7% mark over the season's first five games. Ron Anderson Jr. led the team with 17 points while shooting 3-for-11 from the charity stripe.
Sophomore Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) scored 10 points with six rebounds. Senior Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) reached nine points and sophomore forward Marvin Baynham (Miami, Fla.) pulled seven rebounds in his second start of the season. Tré Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.) led the Eagles from downtown with 2-of-4 shooting to post six points.
The Eagles shot just 34.6% from the field in the first half with a late run to close the half and trail by just nine at the intermission. The Bulls went on an 11-4 run out of the locker room to start the second half, forcing the Eagles to comeback from an 18-point deficit at its largest point.
GSU cut the lead back to 11 at 12:47 on Cameron Baskerville's (Marietta, Ga.) only points of the night as he grabbed seven rebounds in the contest. That would be as close as Georgia Southern would get with USF taking the lead to 23 points (60-37) with 6:18 remaining. GSU sprang a 9-1 run to bring the lead to 15, but would not score over the final 4:19 to fall by a 66-46 final score.
Georgia Southern returns to Statesboro before heading to Dallas, Texas for a Sunday matinee against USF on November 27th. The game starts from the "Big D" at 3 p.m. (ET), 2 p.m. (CT).
Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.
