STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball led by as many as 13 but ultimately fell by a lone point to UNC Greensboro on Thursday (February 24th) night at Hanner Fieldhouse, 57-56. The Spartans took a one-point lead with 17 seconds left. Georgia Southern and had a chance at the winning basket, but saw the attempt miss as time expired.

"I'm proud of the way our team played for the first 38 minutes tonight," said Eagles Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "We had a chance tonight to stretch the lead out to 20 or more points, but we let Greensboro back into the game. This was the first time we've been in a situation where we had a lead and had the chance to closeout the game. I think this experience will help us with our killer instinct going into the (SoCon) tournament next week."

Georgia Southern (5-25, 1-16 SoCon) was led by 11 points and three blocks by senior Rory Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.). The forward reached double-figures for the third consecutive game and led the team in scoring for the third time this season He also moved into seventh place on the single-season blocks chart with 35 this year. Junior Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) scored 10 points with a team-high three assists.

Southern Conference Freshman of the Year candidate Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) posted 10 points with two steals and a block. Freshman Marvin Baynham (Miami, Fla.) was one-point off his career high, posting nine points on the night with five rebounds. Sophomore Cameron Baskerville (Marietta, Ga.) had four points and a team-high six rebounds, leading the Eagles in that category for the third time this year.

Brandon Evans scored 20 points with seven rebounds as UNC Greensboro (6-22, 6-11 SoCon) improved to 2-0 this season against the Eagles. He was 10-of-11 from the free throw line, and scored 12 of his points in the second half. Trevis Simpson contributed 13 points while Aaron Brackett scored eight points.

Georgia Southern was hot to trot out of the gate going on an 11-2 run in the game's first nine minutes. The Spartans didn't record their first field goal until 10:59 and went 2-for-4 from the free throw line in the opening minutes.

Greensboro's Evans engineered a 7-2 run to cut the Eagle advantage to four points before a 6-0 Georgia Southern run extended the lead back to 11 points. Spencer's free throw with 32 seconds left gave GSU a 27-14 lead in the final seconds of the first half.

A jumper by Greensboro in the final second of the first half cut the Georgia Southern advantage to 11 points at the interval. The Eagles shot .524 (11-for-21) from the field with seven steals and held UNCG to .313 (5-of-16) shooting from the field.

Out of the break, UNCG went on a 4-0 run, slowed by a thunderous dunk by Ferguson. The Spartans would go on to cut the lead to five points within the first three minutes of the second half.

A three-pointer from James extended the Eagles led back to 11-points at 9:58, but consecutive UNCG three-pointers from Trevis Simpson brought the Spartans within five again at 8:13.

Over the final eight minutes of the game, Georgia Southern would lead by a maximum of seven points at the 3:36 mark on a jumper from Drayton.

A pair of free throws with 1:04 left by Evans brought the Spartans within one point, but an old fashioned three-point play with 46 seconds off the hand of Spencer gave the Eagles a four-point lead.

A Spencer foul at the other end allowed Evans to cut the lead back to two with 39 seconds to play. Evans fouled Hewitt who made one-of-two at the free throw line to put Georgia Southern ahead by three points, 55-53.

Evans posted his sixth consecutive point with 26 seconds left to bring the Spartans within one. A steal by Kyle Randall with 22 seconds left allowed Brackett to make a two-point jumper from the elbow with 17 seconds left. The basket gave UNCG its first lead of the game.

Georgia Southern inbounded the ball with and the Eagles called their final timeout with nine seconds left to draw up a potential game-winning play.

The ball was keyed in to Drayton behind the time line and the junior matriculated the ball upcourt. He drove the ball inside to the top of the arc and found an open Ferguson waiting in the near-side corner. He dished and Ferguson pulled up for a floater from seven feet which fell just short of the rim and into the hands of UNCG as the horn sounded.

Georgia Southern shot .488 (21-for-43) on the night while UNCG upped its shooting average to .400 (18-for-45) on the night. The Eagles recorded one second-half steal for eight on the night while blocking five shots. The Eagles were out-rebounded 29-28 for the game. UNCG went 13-for-14 from the free throw line in the second half including a perfect 8-for-8 half for Evans.

The Eagles will close out the 2011 regular season at Hanner Fieldhouse against Elon on Saturday night (Feb. 26th).  Senior day festivities begin prior to tipoff at 7:30 p.m. following the women's basketball game against Furman. The 2011 Southern Conference Tournament opens on Friday, March 4th in Chattanooga, Tenn.

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