MOBILE, Ala. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball came up short on Monday evening against South Alabama, falling 70-57 to the Jaguars. The Eagles rallied from a 13-point deficit at half time, but could not get closer than eight points in the second stanza.

Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) paced the Eagles (3-6, 2-0 SoCon) with a season high 16 points despite posting just one assist on the night. He was a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line as the Eagles went 23-29 (79.3%) from the stripe as a squad, with 19 coming in the second half.

"I was really happy with the way we shot the ball from the free throw line tonight," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "We got behind early tonight and we tried to come back, but we couldn't quite get over the hump."

Senior Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) reached double figures with 11 points and added a team-high five assists. Sophomore Jelani Hewitt (Miramar, Fla.) had nine points in the contest with five rebounds.

South Alabama (7-3) was led by a pair of double-doubles from Antione Lundy and Augustine Rubit. Lundy scored 16 with 12 rebounds while Rubit posted 17 points and 10 boards. The Jaguars as a team out-rebounded the Eagles 42-28 on the night with 26 on the defensive glass.

"South Alabama was a very physical team," added Young. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to match their physicality and they beat us on the boards."

Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) scored less than 10 points for the first time this season with eight and Tre Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.) posted seven points. Top rebounding honors went to Marvin Baynham (Miami, Fla.) with six as he led the Eagles for the first time this season.

Georgia Southern trailed by 13 points at the intermission after leading by as many as four in the opening minutes of the first half. The Jaguars strung the advantage to 16 by the 16:55 mark before the Eagles started chipping away at the lead.

The Eagles cut the lead to eight points on numerous occasions, but could not get past that mark. The task was made tougher by the fact that the Eagles went over 10 minutes in the second half without a field goal despite scoring 12 free throws over the stretch.

Georgia Southern was dominated in the paint, trailing 38-8 in the lane and saw the Jaguars score 23 second chance points on the night. USA took advantage of 16 Georgia Southern turnovers for 22 points to the Eagles' 11 off 17 Jaguar miscues.

The Eagles return to action on the road against Georgia State. The game starts from Atlanta at 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 22nd. Georgia Southern's next home game is on Monday, January 2nd, against Brewton-Parker inside Hanner Fieldhouse.

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