Men’s Basketball Falls 101-68 at West Virginia

Thursday, November 21

Morgantown, WVa.

7 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

2-2

101

West Virginia

3-1

Georgia Southern

West Virginia

101

Photo by: Dan Friend

11/21/2013 9:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Eagles have a Saturday afternoon matchup with Old Dominion up next

Photo Gallery

Georgia Southern vs West Virginia - 11/21/13 - 7:00 p.m.
at WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, W.Va.
A-4814

Georgia Southern..............   26   42  -   68
West Virginia.................   55   46  -  101

GEORGIA SOUTHERN (2-2) Bussey 8-17 1-1 21; Hewitt 5-17 4-8 15; Diamond 3-10 0-0 8; Matias 2-5 3-6 7; Baynham 2-6 1-4 5; Doyle 2-4 0-3 4; Holmes 1-3 0-0 3; Mike 1-1 0-0 2; Dunnican 1-1 0-0 2; Thomas 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 25-64 10-24 68.

WEST VIRGINIA (3-1) Staten 7-11 5-6 20; Henderson 6-8 2-2 16; Williams 7-12 2-7 16; Harris 6-11 2-2 15; Browne 4-6 0-0 11; Dibo 3-7 0-0 8; Watkins 3-4 0-1 6; Adrian 2-5 0-0 5; Noreen 2-5 0-0 4; Hughes 0-1 0-0 0; Connor 0-1 0-0 0; Romeo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 40-71 11-18 101.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Georgia Southern spotted West Virginia an early 13-0 advantage as the Mountaineers went on to a 101-68 win on Thursday night at the WVU Coliseum. Tre Bussey paced the Georgia Southern offense with 21 points as the Eagles couldn't answer West Virginia's 56% shooting from the field.

"We faced adversity for the first time tonight," said Head Coach Mark Byington. "What I was disappointed with was (our players) trying to do things by themselves and not rely on our teammates. At halftime we talked to the guys about why things got out of hand in the first half, and we responded by playing better in the second half. We're going to go back and review the film and show the team that the second half is the way we want to play the game."

Bussey has scored over 20 points in all four games this season and finished the night with 21 on 4-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. As a team, Georgia Southern (2-2) struggled in the frist half, just shooting 27% from the field and 21% from the bonusphere.

West Virginia got off to a hot start in the opening minutes, posting a 13-0 run to start the game. The Mountaineers parlayed that advantage into a 30-point advantage with 6:33 in the first half and took a 55-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Jelani Hewitt added 15 points as the junior guard was held to his lowest scoring output of the season. He added six rebounds and five assists on the night. In the second period Southern improved its shooting, going 55% from the field and 33% from downtown. The Eagles dropped 42 second half points after being held to 26 in the opening stanza.

Juwan Staten scored 20 to lead the way for the Mountaineers. Overall, five players scored in double figures with Devin Williams and Brandon Watkins adding 16 while Eron Harris and Gary Browne scored 15 and 10, respectively.

As a unit, West Virginia shot 56% from the field for the night and went 38% from beyond the arc to improve to 3-1 on the campaign.

Angel Matias was the star for the Eagles on the glass, pulling 11 rebounds, one off a career-high. The junior also dropped seven points in the contest. Junior Curtis Diamond had eight points to round out the Eagle scorers, filling in for Brian Holmes who got into foul trouble early.

Next up for Georgia Southern is the second game of the 2013 Cancun Challenge at Old Dominion. The Eagle will face the Monarchs at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Please note that the Georgia Southern Radio Network will not broadcast the game due to Football's contest at Florida.

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and witter.com/GSAthletics, and its "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.