Eagles Stymie Wofford, 63-49
2/10/2012 3:14:00 AM | Men's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Although it wasn't cold enough for snow, there was a Whiteout inside Hanner Fieldhouse on Thursday night as Georgia Southern blew past Wofford, 63-49. The win puts Georgia Southern two games clear of the Terriers for second place in the SoCon South Division. The Eagles reach the .500 mark for the first time under head coach Charlton "C.Y." Young this late in the season at 12-12, 10-4 in SoCon play. The Terriers fall to 15-11 overall and 8-6 in league play for their first three-game losing streak since December 2009.
"I was proud of the community for coming out and supporting this team tonight," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "The atmosphere tonight gave us energy all night and I really want to thank our fans for coming out and being loud. We played well and championship teams have to go out and dominate at home. We did that tonight and we're going to have to keep doing it down the stretch."
Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) made a late charge to record his second-straight double-double. He scored a game-high 15 points with 11 rebounds. Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.), however, had a tremendous night scoring 14 points to go with seven rebounds and six assists. He was 6-of-11 on the night from the field as the Eagles shot 12-for-22 (54.5%) in the second half to finish the night 48% overall from the field.
Senior Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) made all three of his attempts from downtown en route to 12 points and two steals. He scored nearly half of GSU's seven three-pointers as the team finished 53.8% from beyond the arc.
The win also improves the Eagles to a perfect 6-0 in league play at Hanner Fieldhouse. Georgia Southern has won its last four games, the first four-game winning streak since late in the 2006-07 season.
Wofford struggled shooting the ball, finishing at 40% from the field and 18.8% (3-of-16) from the bonusphere. The Terriers were just 4-of-15 (26.7%) from the free throw stripe on the night. Drew Crowell scored a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds while Brad Loesing had 13 points.
Jelani Hewitt's (Miramar, Fla.) hot run shooting the ball hit a road bump with the sophomore scoring eight points. Fellow sophomore Tré Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.) scored five points, providing quality minutes off the bench.
The Eagles opened the night by racing out to a seven point lead after less than four minutes, but Wofford trailed by five points, 29-24 at the intermission as GSU went cold from the field in the final four minutes of the first half.
Out of the break, GSU was buoyed by a dunk by Ferguson in the opening minute of the period. The lead would grow to 12 points by the 16:22 mark and further still to 17 points at 12:09 as the Eagles posted a 16-4 run.
The Terriers got within 12 points with just over nine minutes remaining, but the Eagles built the lead back to 17 points just before the four minute media timeout. Wofford scored four-straight out of the timeout to trail by 13 with 2:08 remaining.
Wofford would get within 12 points with 1:26 remaining, but that would be as close as the Terriers got as the Eagles drained their late free throws.
Georgia Southern makes the short trip over to Charleston on Saturday night for a clash with The Citadel. The game starts at 7:05 p.m. and can be heard live on the Georgia Southern Radio Network.
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