STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball stormed past Appalachian State to go 2-0 in the Southern Conference with a 73-62 victory on Saturday night in Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles (3-4, 2-0 SoCon) never trailed and led by as many as 25 in the game.

"I'm extremely proud of my team after tonight's performance. Appalachian State is a very large, very good team," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "I think that being 2-0 in the conference is going to be a boost for our team's confidence going into this stretch of four road games."

Sophomore Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) earned top-scorer honors with 15 points and missed his second double-double of the season by one with nine rebounds. He was trailed by Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.), who scored 14 points including four from downtown. The Eagles continued to shoot the ball well from the perimeter with an 8-of-16 showing while holding Appalachian State to 26.7% from the outside.

Sophomore Tré Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.) scored 12 points with four rebounds while Senior Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) scored 11 points to go with a game-high eight assists. Powers was bolstered by the support of 80 friends and family from Gainesville, who made the trip to Statesboro.

Appalachian State, who falls to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play, was led by 13 points by Andre Williamson and Omar Carter. Williamson also grabbed nine rebounds as the Eagles out-rebounded the Mountaineers, 35-32 and 9-6 on the offensive glass.

Georgia Southern opened the game with a 15-3 run and didn't look back in the first half, leading by as many as 24 in the opening half. At the break, GSU led the Mountaineers by a 45-25 margin.

The Eagles kept the Mountaineers' feet to the flame, not allowing the advantage to slide to less than 16 points until there was 1:49 remaining in the game. Appalachian State closed the gap to 11 points with a 6-1 run over the final two minutes of the contest.

Georgia Southern returns to the court on Saturday, December 10th at Eastern Kentucky The contest starts at 7 p.m. and opens a four-game road swing. The Eagles won't see a conference opponent for over a month, traveling to Thursday, January 5th, for a game at Elon.

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