STATESBORO, GA. – Jelani Hewitt's game-winning three-point attempt bounced out at the horn as Georgia Southern dropped a 61-59 decision at UCF on Tuesday night in the CFE Arena. Hewitt scored a game-high 17 points, but it wasn't enough to extend the Eagles' four-game winning streak. The Eagles break for the better part of two weeks for final exams, returning to action on December 15th at South Florida for another game on ESPN3.

A total of 14 lead changes accented a back-and-forth game which saw neither team led by more than five points. The Eagles (4-2, 0-0 Sun Belt) led by three with 4:33 remaining, but missed their final five shots from the field including two from inside the paint. UCF (5-1, 0-0 AAC) made one-of-two free throws with 3:11 remaining and saw Trent Wiedeman (16 points, four rebounds) tie the game again with 1:05 as both team struggled down the stretch.

The Knights delivered a blow with 29 seconds left Kasey Wilson got an offensive rebound and the tip in to put the home side up 61-59. The Eagles worked the ball up the court and took a timeout with eight seconds remaining to draw up a final second play. The ball was keyed in to Hewitt in the half court who took an open NBA-range three that clanged twice off the iron and fell to the floor.

"This is a learning opportunity on December 2nd, and we're going to take it," said Head Coach Mark Byington. "We're going to see what happened, we're going to make some improvements, and the next time we're in the situation we'll be better for it."

Wiedeman and Hewitt were the only Eagles in double figures as Georgia Southern posted its lowest scoring output of the season. Kyle Doyle scored a season-high six points while Angel Matias also dropped six. Freshman Mike Hughes lead the way on the rebounding glass, grabbing six as the Eagles were bested in team rebounds (33-25) for just the second time this season.

"Our offense went in patterns tonight," added Byington. "I thought early on we had 11 points the first four minutes of the game. We came out executing, scoring, and everything else. Then they went into a zone, and we should have been fine. We made an adjustment at halftime because we got stagnant against the zone in the first half, and that took us out of rhythm."

Inside-man Justin McBride followed his 31-point effort from Sunday night with 14 points in 21 minutes off the bench to lead the way for UCF which was without its leading scorer due to injury. Adonys Henriquez added 11 points, while Wilson scored seven with nine rebounds including the game-winner.

Next up for the Eagles is a December 15th trip to face South Florida to open back-to-back games along the I-4 corridor. The contest against the Bulls is set for 7 p.m. inside the Sun Dome. Fans can watch the game live on ESPN3.

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