BOONE, N.C. – Mike Hughes hit a 35-foot 3-pointer, was fouled and made the free throw with 0.8 seconds left to lift Georgia Southern to a 101-100 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball victory over Appalachian State Monday night in the Holmes Center.
Hughes scored nine of Georgia Southern's last 12 points as the Eagles (7-11, 3-5) overcame an eight-point deficit in the final 2:36 of the contest. Georgia Southern trailed 98-93 with a minute to play, but Hughes made a putback layup and after the Eagles forced a 30-second clock shot violation,
Jake Allsmiller drilled two free throws to cut the margin to one point with 10 seconds left.
Georgia Southern fouled Jacob Lawson, who made a pair to give the Apps a 100-97 lead with 5.5 to go. The Eagles inbounded to
Tookie Brown, who sped up the court, spaced to the wing and hit Hughes with a pass in the middle of the court. Hughes let it fly and was fouled by Chris Burgess with 0.8 on the clock. The officials reviewed the play, and App used its final timeout, but Hughes was unfazed by the delay, calmly swishing the free throw.
The Mountaineers (5-14, 3-5) tried a long pass on the inbounds play, but the ball sailed out of bounds at the other end of the court without being touched. The Eagles inbounded to Brown under their own basket to seal the win.
Brown finished with a career-high 34 points to go along with three assists and three steals, and Hughes tallied 19 points, a career-high nine rebounds and two blocked shots.
Devonte Boykins scored a career-high 15 points, and Allsmiller scored 11.
Shawn O'Connell collected 10 points and six rebounds.
Frank Eaves made 9 of 16 3-pointers and scored 37 points to lead the Mountaineers. Ronshad Shabazz netted a career-high 29 points.
The storyGeorgia Southern had an 11-point lead with 1:36 left in the first half, but App scored the final seven points of the period and opened the second frame with an 11-3 run to take a four-point advantage. App used a 9-3 run, keyed by an Eaves 3-pointer and a Shabazz jumper to open the eight-point cushion, its largest of the contest with 2:36 to go, setting up Hughes' heroics. The contest saw 59 fouls, and the teams combined to shoot 74 free throws. Georgia Southern was 29 of 36 from the charity stripe, and the Mountaineers hit 28 of 38. Both teams came out hot to start the game. The Eagles and Mountaineers combined to hit 13 of their first 16 shots, including eight 3-pointers, over the first 5:51 of the contest. Georgia Southern shot 51 percent for the game and 53 percent in the second half. Appalachian State shot 48 percent.
Quotable from Coach Mark ByingtonHead coach Mark Byington"That was one of the crazier finishes of any college basketball game that I've ever been a part of. I'm proud of the guys for not giving up. It definitely looked like everything was against us. I didn't have a power forward or a 5-man eligible to play anymore, so I had to have five guards out there."
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Mike Hughes is a winner. He is a different type of guy where he's calm and cool under pressure. I had no doubt that he was going to make the free throw. The 3-pointer was ridiculous. That was just those five guys out there making plays."
"There were some great individual performances, and I thought both teams played really hard and got frustrated at times. App State deserved to win the game as much as we did, and I feel fortunate that we pulled it out."
Mike Hughes"I knew we needed a 3 because they just hit two free throws, and I thought Tookie might take it because he was hot. It didn't surprise me that it went in because I shoot shots like that during breaks in practice a lot. The foul was because he didn't let me land, and that's the way they call the game now."
Next upThe Eagles continue their four-game road trip at Little Rock Thursday, Jan. 28. Tipoff is set for 8:15 p.m. ET
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