OXFORD, Miss. – Sebastian Saiz tallied 24 points and 17 rebounds, and Ole Miss canned 40 free throws to earn an 82-72 men's basketball victory over Georgia Southern Monday night in the Tad Smith Coliseum.

Ike Smith recorded 14 points and six rebounds to lead Georgia Southern (1-1), and Devonte Boykins posted a career-high 13 points and four assists. Mike Hughes contributed 13 points.

Stefan Moody finished with 22 points and eight rebounds for Ole Miss (2-0) after hitting 15-of-17 from the charity stripe. Sam Finley scored 12.

Georgia Southern held Ole Miss to 36 percent shooting for the contest and 26 percent in the second half, but the Rebels outscored the Eagles by 21 points at the free-throw line. The Eagles shot 31 percent from the floor and made 11-of-35 from 3-point range.
 

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The story
With Georgia Southern trailing by 10 points, Jake Allsmiller drilled consecutive 3-pointers in a 7-0 run, and a Smith free throw made the score 59-56 with 8:03 remaining. The Eagles went the next 5:06 without a field goal, and Ole Miss built the lead back up to 10 points on two Saiz free throws with 2:48 to go. The Rebels only had one field goal during that same stretch, but made 9-of-10 from the free-throw line. Trailing by 10 with 1:18 left, the Eagles scored five straight points on a Devince Boykins 3-pointer and a Montae Glenn layup that made the score 75-70 with 45 seconds left, but Ole Miss went 7-for-8 from the free throw line to seal the victory. Ole Miss was in the 1-and-1 bonus 7:22 into the game and again 7:11 into the second half. The Rebels finished the game 40-of-53 from the free-throw line for the game as the Eagles were whistled for 38 fouls and had three student-athletes foul out.
 

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Quotable from Coach Mark Byington
"We had it down to three late in the second half, and we were a play or two away. On the fouls, we have to adjust. We have to play better and show our hands and move our feet better. A couple of them were hard to take, but we have to move on because there are a lot of plays out there. It was a great learning experience for our guys, and I was happy that they came here to try to win. We'll learn from it. We grew a lot tonight, and that was my main goal."

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Next up
Georgia Southern stays in the SEC and travels to Auburn Friday, Nov. 20. Tipoff is set for 9:30 p.m. Eastern, and the game will be broadcast live on the SEC Network + and can be seen at WatchESPN.com and on the WatchESPN app.

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. Tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events can be purchased by visiting GSEagles.com/tickets.