STATESBORO, GA. – Jelani Hewitt scored 15 points and set the Georgia Southern career free throws made record to lead the Eagles to a 65-60 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball victory over Arkansas State Thursday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

Hewitt set the mark during a pivotal 7-2 Georgia Southern run which saw the senior score all seven points. After Arkansas State trimmed a 12-point deficit to five, Hewitt hit a jumper, drilled the two record-setting free throws and capped the stretch with a long 3-pointer.

Hewitt passed Elton Nesbitt who had 353 free throws from 2003-06. He hit four of his five free throws tonight while the Eagles struggled as a team from the charity stripe, making just 5-of-15.

The Red Wolves made a final push and got the margin down to five points with under a minute to go, but Hewitt was there again to hit a floater and put the lead back to seven points with 37 seconds left.

Trent Wiedeman posted 14 points and six rebounds for Georgia Southern (17-5, 10-3), and Curtis Diamond collected 11 points and nine rebounds. Angel Matias chipped in 10 points and six rebounds, and Hewitt added five rebounds, four assists and three steals with 11 of his points coming in the second half.

"I just want to continue to read the defense and trust our guys to make plays," said Hewitt, who had to fight off double teams a majority of the night. "Hats off to Arkansas State. They came out with a lot of energy, and we had a tough time keeping them off the glass. We were just resilient and pulled out the win."

Nouhoum Bocoum posted 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Arkansas State (9-14, 4-10), and Anthony Livingston finished with 16 points and 16 boards. Sean Gardner scored 10.

The Eagles took control of the game with a 13-5 run, capped by consecutive dunks by Hewitt and Ferguson, to open a 50-38 lead with 11:07 left in the contest. Livingston scored four points, and Gardner hit a 3-pointer in an 11-4 Red Wolves run that made it a five-point game with 6:09 to play.

Georgia Southern held Arkansas State to 42 percent shooting from the floor, and the Red Wolves made just 8-of-18 from the free-throw stripe.

"We weren't our best tonight, we didn't shoot it great and we had some chances to make plays around the rim in the first half that we didn't make," said Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington. "Jelani made a lot of big plays for us. He stepped up like an all-conference player does."

The Eagles are back in action Saturday when they travel to UALR for a Sun Belt Conference contest. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. eastern.

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!

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