Postgame Press Conference
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Georgia Southern never trailed as the Eagles took a 65-50 win over Furman to dismiss the Paladins from the 2014 SoCon Tournament. The Eagles advance to play second-seeded Chattanooga in the quarterfinal round on Saturday evening at 6 p.m.
"It is tough to play a team three times and both of the first two could have gone either way," said Head Coach
Mark Byington. "I was really proud of our guys' maturity and their focus. We embraced the type of game that it was going to be. It was going to be a tournament game and we had to get good shots, we had to share the ball and we had to play defense."
Jelani Hewitt tallied 20 points to lead all scorers adding eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Tre Bussey and
Angel Matias also reached double figure with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Charlie Reddick had a strong game for the Paladins with 18 points and seven rebounds. He shot five-for-seven from the floor and made all seven free throw attempts. Stephen Croone chipped in 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The Eagles used a 14-2 spurt to start the second half to build a 20-point cushion. Hewitt's dunk at 13:20 put his squad in firm control, 49-29. The lead swelled to as many as 24, 59-35, on Bussey's jumper in the lane with 6:33 to go.
Furman answered with a 9-0 run cutting it to 15, 59-44, on three Reddick free tosses at 4:14. That was as close as it would get as GSU held on for the win.
Georgia Southern was dominant inside this afternoon with a 38-16 points in the paint advantage. It also recorded 13 steals, the most by a Paladins opponent this season.
The Eagles return to the floor at the U.S. Cellular Center on Saturday at 6 p.m. against No. 2 seeded Chattanooga. The Eagles defeated the Mocs earlier this season. The game can be seen live on ESPN3.
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 twitter.com/GSAthletics.
