SAVANNAH, Ga. – Christian Terrell scored 17 points, including a big 3-pointer with 36 seconds left, and Florida Gulf Coast shot 61 percent to outlast Georgia Southern in men's basketball action Sunday afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse.

Ike Smith tallied 23 points and five rebounds, while Tookie Brown recorded 21 points and four steals for Georgia Southern (4-4). B.J. Gladden chipped in 12 points, and Mike Hughes had 11 points and four rebounds.

Zach Johnson tallied 16 points and nine assists, and Antravious Simmons posted 13 points and 12 rebounds for Florida Gulf Coast (5-3). Brandon Goodwin finished with 12 points and 10 assists.

The story
Georgia Southern whittled a 17-point second-half deficit down to three points at 79-76 after Mike Hughes got a steal and Smith tipped in his layup that rolled off the rim with 2:26 to play. GS looked to have a defensive stop when the shot clock expired on FGCU's trip down the floor. Goodwin tried a runner with the shot clock winding down, and Rayjon Tucker fought for the rebound and was fouled as he hustled to get a shot up, which went off the backboard and in but after the buzzer sounded. Officials ruled that Goodwin's shot had hit the rim and Tucker's basket was good.

Montae Glenn made 1 of 2 free throws at the other end to make the score 81-77 with 1:34 left, and Smith got a steal to get the ball back for GS. Hughes tried to test Demetris Morant at the rim, but the forward tallied his fourth blocked shot of the game. FGCU ran the shot clock down again, and Terrell buried a triple from the top of the key to increase the margin to 84-77 with 36 seconds left.

Florida Gulf Coast jumped out to a 10-3 lead to start the game and led 20-6 following a Tucker fast-break dunk 6:29 in the contest. Georgia Southern scored 15 straight points and took a brief 21-20 lead, its only one of the game, on a Smith dunk, but Florida Gulf Coast scored the next 12 points as Johnson and Terrell ignited the spurt with 3-pointers. 

That's the way the rest of the game went with Georgia Southern trimming the deficit to three or four points only to see FGCU push the margin back out to double digits. After trailing 42-33 at halftime, GS scored the first two buckets of the second frame before Terrell scored five points in a 12-2 FGCU spurt that made the score 54-39.

With GS trailing 77-65, Brown helped ignite an 11-2 run with a one-handed dunk in traffic after the sophomore guard drove the lane. Brown had another bucket and Smith added a pair of baskets during the stretch. 

Quotables from Head coach Mark Byington
"We dug ourselves a hole to start the game, and we dug ourselves another one to go down 17, and there are just too many runs there that we had to try to withstand. But with all the bad things that happened, with 1:50 to go, we're down three with a possession to get a stop, and then we had some free throws to get it to three with a minute to go and you never know what's going to happen then. So we gave ourselves a chance at the end. We never quit, but we have to learn to compete like we did the last 12 minutes for all 40, and then we're going to be in good shape."

"They were driving the ball to the middle, and we don't have a shot-blocking presence. What you have to do to make up for that is have defensive rotations, we have to take charges and we have to have courage enough to do some things there, and we didn't. That was the disappointing thing. We just weren't alert at the beginning of the game. When teams are doing that, you have to step in and take charges, you have to rotate and you have to help each other out and we have to be more disciplined not to give up drives. It wasn't them shooting threes that bothered us today. It was them creating 2-on-1s and finishing at the rim."

On atmosphere
"At times it was a high-level game - there was a lot of athletic plays and good plays and guys were trying to compete. The fans that were here made a lot of noise. I wish we would have pulled it out, but it was two good teams playing basketball and hopefully people here enjoyed that."

Next up
Georgia Southern opens a four-game road trip at Minnesota Dec. 9. The game tips at 9 p.m. ET and will be televised live on the Big 10 Network.

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