TROY, Ala. – Kelton Ford scored 26 points, and Troy used a late 8-0 run to push by Georgia Southern 75-71 in a Sun Belt Conference men's basketball contest Saturday evening in Trojan Arena.

Jelani Hewitt led all scorers with 28 points and added six rebounds for Georgia Southern (11-4, 4-2), which saw its four-game win streak come to an end. Curtis Diamond scored 12 points, and Kyle Doyle collected nine points and six rebounds.

Ford, who came into the game 6-for-34 from 3-point range, nailed 6-of-9 from downtown, and Musa Abdul-Aleem netted 23 points off the bench for Troy (7-8, 2-4). Kevin Thomas tallied 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Hewitt gave the Eagles a one-point cushion with 2:57 to go after accelerating to the basket, drawing contact and dropping the ball off the window and in. The senior added the free throw to make the score 65-64 and got a steal on the Trojans' possession, but Mike Hughes missed a triple from the wing.

That started a stretch in which the Eagles went cold the next two-plus minutes, while Troy got to the free-throw line at the other end and made eight straight from the charity stripe.

Down 72-65, Jake Allsmiller hit a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left, and after Ford went 1-for-2 from the line, Hewitt got a triple to go to make the score 73-71 with 6.1 seconds remaining. The Eagles tried to get one more steal but had to foul Abdul-Aleem with 3.7 seconds left, and the senior made two free throws to ice the game.

"We didn't play well tonight, but when Jelani got the And-1, I thought maybe we're going to grind this out," said Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington. "But we didn't get the stops we needed at the end. Offensively, I thought when they went to the 1-3-1, we had a layup and a wide-open 3 that didn't go down, and then we were looking to go away from the rim instead of towards the rim."

After a Hewitt triple put the Eagles ahead 3-2 early, Troy used a 17-4 run to open a 19-7 cushion as Ford scored 11 points. Trailing 38-29 with 4:55 left in the period, a Diamond 3-pointer keyed a 10-2 Eagle run that trimmed the lead to 40-39 at halftime. 

"Since after the win Thursday night, we've been trying to hammer home 'Answer the bell and be ready to go' today, and we didn't do that," said Byington. "Every road win is going to be tough, and Troy plays very well at home. We didn't respond early, and we fought our way back the last 10 minutes of the first half but overall, we didn't play well tonight."

Georgia Southern looked to be taking control of the game early in the second half, and a jumper by Allsmiller gave the Eagles a 56-48 lead seven minutes into the frame. The Trojans answered right back with a 16-4 spurt and took a 64-60 lead on an Abdul-Aleem triple with 5:08 to play.

The Eagles continue their three-game road trip at Texas State Thursday. Following Saturday's game at UL Monroe, Georgia Southern opens a five-game homestand against Appalachian State Jan. 29, in Hanner Fieldhouse.

All-session ticket books to this year's Sun Belt Basketball Championships March 11-15, in New Orleans are available for $99 at the Georgia Southern Ticket Office. Call 1-800-GSU-WINS!

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, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, call 1-800-GSU-WINS or visit GSEagles.com.