GSU Falls to Davidson on Senior Night
2/26/2012 3:24:00 AM | Men's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern Men's Basketball closed the 2011-12 regular season with a 71-54 loss to Davidson at Hanner Fieldhouse. The loss closes a regular season that saw the Eagles match a school record for Southern Conference victories in a season with 12 as the Eagles finish in a tie for second place in the SoCon South Division.
The Eagles (14-14, 12-6 SoCon) will enter the Southern Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed in the South Division, falling in a tiebreaker to Wofford. With GSU and Wofford winning one game each head-to-head, the tiebreaker fell to record against College of Charleston. Wofford won twice over the Cougars while the Eagles split against CofC. GSU opened the tournament on Friday night in Asheville against Chattanooga at 8:30 p.m.
"Davidson came in here tonight and showed us what it takes to be an elite level team," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "We didn't shoot the ball very well tonight, and that really hurt us. We are excited that everyone's record is now 0-0 going into the tournament next weekend."
Prior to Saturday night's game, Georgia Southern honored seniors Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) and Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) for their years of service to the Eagles. Each scored nine points on their final appearance inside the arena with Drayton making four steals and Powers dishing three assists.
"I'm really proud of what our two seniors have done for this program," said Young. "These guys gave their heart and soul to Georgia Southern and now we really want to give these guys a proper sendoff with the Southern Conference Championship."
Georgia Southern struggled shooting the ball against Davidson with 19-of-61 from the field for a .311 mark, the lowest since a December 19th loss to South Alabama. Davidson shot 47.1% from the field, but went just 1-for-14 from downtown (7.1%). Davidson cleaned the boards to a 48-33 tune and ruled the paint 34-20.
Jelani Hewitt (Miramar, Fla.) led all scorers with 17 points on 3-of-5 from downtown. SoCon Player of the Year Candidate Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) scored 13 points to cap his second regular season. He grabbed five rebounds on the night. Marvin Baynham (Miami, Fla.) was the top rebounder for the Eagles with six.
Davidson (22-7, 16-2 SoCon) put four scorers in double figures with Jake Cohen leading the way with 16 points. JP Kuhlman had 15 while De'Mon Brooks scored 14. Nik Cochran slashed his way to 12 points, all in the second half.
The Eagles trailed 33-24 at the break, but saw the Wildcats extend a 10-point margin at 12:30 to 17 points at the 9:12 mark in the second half. Georgia Southern made a run, cutting the lead to 13 with 3:44 remaining before the Wildcats posted their biggest advantage of the night, 20, with just 2:07 left.
The Eagles open the 2012 Southern Conference Tournament on Friday night in Asheville against Chattanooga from 8:30 p.m. Tickets for the tournament can be purchased from the Georgia Southern Athletics Ticket Office by contacting 1-800-GSU-WINS.
Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.
