Georgia Southern Can't Contain Davidson, Fall 73-66
2/1/2011 3:04:00 AM | Men's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball stayed within striking distance but was unable to deliver the knockout blow on Monday night against Davidson, falling 73-66 to the Wildcats. Junior Ben Drayton (St. Marys, Ga.) and freshman Jelani Hewitt (Oakland Park, Fla.) led the Eagles with 14 points as GSU drops its 10th straight game.
"I'd really like to thank the Statesboro community for coming out and supporting this team," said head coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "We had a great crowd here tonight and they see that we are building a winning program for the future. Tonight, turnovers really hurt us but we are getting closer to a string of wins. We are building for the Southern Conference Tournament."
The Eagles (4-19, 0-10 SoCon) saw co-leading scorer Drayton post two steals with five rebounds. Drayton now needs just 11 points to become the 37th member of the 1,000 point club at GSU. Top rebounder honors for the game went to Marvin Baynham (Miami, Fla.) with seven boards. Freshman Tré Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.) added 11 points with a pair of steals.
Georgia Southern was without the services of sophomore Zuri James who saw an eight-game starts streak ended. Freshman Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) dropped nine points with five assists. Baynham scored seven and sophomore Cameron Baskerville (Marietta, Ga.) added eight.
Davidson (10-12, 4-7 SoCon) was led by 20 points from JP Kuhlman while De'Mon Brooks scored 14 and Brandon McKillop added 11 points.
The Wildcats took a 35-26 advantage into halftime off .625 shooting from beyond the arc and .560 from the field. Georgia Southern shot just .400 for the half and .333 from the bonusphere. Drayton scored seven of his points in the opening period while Hewitt added six more. Davidson had three players finish the first half on six points (Kuhlman, Clint Mann and Tom Drowney).
Georgia Southern cut the lead to seven points at 17:17 but saw a three-pointer moments later extend the Davidson advantage back to 10 points inside of 15 minutes remaining.
Hewitt's first three-pointer of the night came at 13:04 as the freshman made the score 44-37. Fouls became a factor following the 12th-minute media timeout as GSU's Spencer and Davidson's Mann each picked up their fourth foul prior to the 11:55 mark.
Baynham had an eventful pair of possessions as he rejected Davidson's Kuhlman on the defensive end and scored a smooth lay in on the offensive side of the ball at 11:05 to make the score 46-39.
After a layup by Davidson, Ferguson sparked a 6-0 GSU run with a free throw followed by a lay up. On the next possession, Hewitt drained a three-ball to cut the Davidson advantage to 48-45 with 9:43 left in the game.
The Wildcats, however, strung together six-straight points to make the score 54-45 at 6:52.
Foul trouble struck the Eagles first as Rory Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.) fouled out with 3:56 left in the game with the Eagles trailing by eight points, 58-50. He scored three points on the night. Ferguson also fouled out with 45 seconds left in the game.
The lead grew to as many as 11 inside of two minutes but the Eagles mounted a charge to chop away at the lead, cutting it to six points with 46 seconds left and as few as five with 12 ticks left on the clock.
Davidson, however, made the clutch free throws in the final minute to hold on for the win. The Wildcats were 9-of-10 inside the final minute from the free throw line.
In the second half, GSU improved to shoot .524 for the final 20 minutes and .463 for the game and .364 from behind the arc. The Wildcats were .524 from the field to go .543 overall, but made just two three-pointers shooting.286 from downtown in the waning minutes.
Georgia Southern was plagued by 19 turnovers but forced uncharacteristic mistakes out of Davidson for 21 Wildcat turnovers. The Eagles secured eight steals on the night while allowing just two by Davidson.
The Eagles take to the road for a Wednesday (Feb. 3) game against Chattanooga starting at 7 p.m. GSU will then return home to play host to Samford on Saturday, Feb. 5th, starting at 1 p.m. The game, broadcast live on SportSouth, will be the sixth-annual "Pack the House in Pink" date in support of breast cancer awareness.
Fans may follow Georgia Southern Men's Basketball by visiting GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/basketball or check in at twitter.com/GSAthletics or facebook.com/GSAthletics for short updates. Live stats and video are available at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com.
