Slow Start to Second Half Hampers Eagles at Charlotte
11/14/2012 5:19:54 AM | Men's Basketball
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball trailed by three at the break, but a 7-0 Charlotte run to start the second half slowed the Eagles who fell to 0-2 on the season with a 66-53 loss at Charlotte on Tuesday night. Eric Ferguson turned in his first double-double of the 2012-13 campaign with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough for the Eagles.
“One of our goals is to get better every day and I feel like we played much better than we did at Valparaiso,” said Head Coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young. “We had a slow start to the second half and I feel like we only played 29 minutes tonight. We’ve got to work on showing up for all 40 minutes every night. We had some great looks at the basket and if some of those had gone in, we could have turned the momentum tonight.”
Ferguson led the Eagles with his seventh career double-double. The junior scored all his points in the first 20 minutes of the game and had five boards on both the offensive and defensive sides of the court. His 10 boards were more than half of the Eagles’ team total of 19.
Freshman Cleon Roberts was 2-for-3 from the bonusphere en route to 11 points on the night. Tre Bussey added his second-straight double-figure scoring performance with 10 points on his 21st birthday.
Charlotte was paced by 21 points off the bench from Chris Braswell. He added 12 rebounds while Pierria Henry scored 13 points including nine from the charity stripe.
After committing 21 turnovers in the season opener, the Eagles slashed that total to 12 while forcing 19 turnovers by the 49ers. Bussey made three steals while Ferguson blocked three shots
Roberts opened up scoring with a pair of three-pointers as he scored eight of Georgia Southern’s first 13 points in the contest. The Eagles trailed by as many as seven points early before knifing into the margin.
The Eagles took the lead with 6:51 left in the opening half on a three-pointer by Bussey. Southern would extend the lead to five before Charlotte re-assumed the lead, 32-31, with 2:26 remaining before halftime.
Georgia Southern trailed 37-34 at the break with both teams shooting identical 45.8% from the field. The Eagles, however, made three from downtown while the 49ers were just 1-of-4 from downtown. Southern cut down on turnovers, making just nine in the first half.
The second half opened with Charlotte scoring seven unanswered points to take a 44-34 lead. The Eagles went 0-for-4 in the stretch which lasted the first 5:47 of the second half until Jessie Pernell made his first bucket of the night to cut the lead to 44-36.
The Eagles were forced to finish the evening without the services of senior Cameron Baskerville when the forward fouled out with 10:31 left in the game with no points or rebounds.
Georgia Southern trailed by as 18 points with 6:54 remaining, but a 9-1 run by the Eagles cut the lead to 10 points with 4:14 remaining. GSU, however, could not get any closer as key shots did not fall in the final few minutes of the game.
The Eagles shot just 22.7% from the field in the second half, making five-of-22 baskets from the field. Charlotte, however, was 10-for-19 in the second half, shooting 52.6% from the field.
The Eagles return to the friendly confines of Hanner Fieldhouse for the 2012-13 home opener on Friday night against Webber International. The contest starts at 7 p.m.
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