Eagles Stumble Against Wofford
1/15/2012 3:16:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball struggled on Saturday night at Wofford, dropping a 88-63 decision to the Terriers at Johnson Arena. Eric Ferguson was the lone bright spot for the Eagles with 26 points and eight rebounds. The Eagles fall to 4-2 in league play and 6-10 overall while Wofford improves to 10-8 and 3-3 in the SoCon.
"Wofford came out and played us tough from the beginning and we couldn't recover from that," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "We wanted to be 5-1 in the league after tonight's game, but we need to fight and be a more disciplined team to beat these championship caliber teams. I told the guys that we need to come back strong on Thursday night and make sure we don't lose two games in a row."
Sophomore Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) was the lone scorer in double figures for the Eagles as he matched his career high with 26 points in the loss. He posted eight rebounds, finishing two shy of his fourth double-double of the season.
The duo of Tyrone Brown (Millen, Ga.) and Cameron Baskerville (Marietta, Ga.) each posted seven points as each finished one point shy of a season-high. Jelani Hewitt (Miramar, Fla.) drained the Eagles' lone three-pointer and finished the game with five points.
Wofford was led by 23 points from Kevin Giltner and three other Terriers scored in double figures. The Terriers shot 61% from the field and were 9-of-20 from beyond the arc.
Georgia Southern got off to a slow start in the first half, trailing by as many as 23 in the opening period as the Terriers shot 61.5% from the field. Wofford was 18-for 29 from the field as the Eagles allowed a season-high field goals in the first half. The Eagles shot 41.7% from the field on 10-of-24 shooting, but did not make a three-pointer in the first 20 minutes.
Out of the break, Wofford continued its strong play and stretched the lead to 27 as late as 14:04 before the Eagles sliced five points out of the margin at the 8:31 mark. The Terriers, however, strung the lead back to 28 points before the final horn as the Eagles suffered their largest margin of defeat for the season.
The Eagles improved in the second half from the field, shooting 16-of-30 (53.3%) to finish the game at 48.1% overall. Georgia Southern, struggled from the free throw line shooting 10-of-16 (62.5%) to Wofford's 15-of-19 (78.9%).
The Eagles return to action on Thursday night, January 19th, on the road against Furman. The contest begins from Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C. at 7 p.m.
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