NEW ORLEANS – Shaq Calhoun led South Alabama with 15 points, and the Jaguars held Georgia Southern to 20 percent shooting in the first half to earn a 67-61 win over the Eagles in the first round of the Sun Belt Men's Basketball Championship Thursday evening in Lakefront Arena.

Ike Smith tallied 15 points and 10 rebounds for Georgia Southern, which sees its season come to a close with a 14-17 record. Tookie Brown posted 15 points and seven rebounds, and Mike Hughes scored 10.

Nick Stover collected 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists for South Alabama (14-18), and Ken Williams recorded 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. John Brown chipped in 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.

South Alabama held the Eagles to 5 of 25 from the field in the first half while building a 36-21 cushion at the break. The Eagles fought back and trimmed the margin to three points with five minutes to play but could get no closer.

The story
After the Eagles trimmed the deficit down to three points with 3:15 remaining, South Alabama used an 8-2 run to pull away late. Calhoun hit a runner on the baseline, Barrington Stevens nailed a 3-pointer from the wing and John Brown fed Stover for a fast-break dunk as the Jaguars opened a 61-52 lead with 1:40 to go.

With Georgia Southern trailing by 15 points at halftime, Brown scored nine points in 15-4 Eagle run to start the second half, and his layup in transition cut the lead to 40-36. The margin stayed between four and seven points until a jumper by Smith made it a one-possession game with 6:54 left. The Eagles cut the lead to three points three more times but could not get over the hump.

The Eagles struggled shooting the basketball in the first half and in addition to their cold streak from the field, made just 9 of 17 from the foul line. South Alabama never trailed in the game and jumped out to an 11-4 lead behind four points each by Calhoun and Williams. Georgia Southern cut a nine-point Jaguar lead to six with 7:56 left in the half, but South Alabama outscored the Eagles 14-2 over the next 5:30 to open a 34-16 advantage.

Quotables from head coach Mark Byington
"The end is never easy. This is a fun group to coach. I watched them grow; I watched them get better, and the way we played in the first half just was not indicative of the team we've grown to be. We were much better than that. We just weren't ourselves. It took us a long time to settle into the game, and once we did in the second half – I recognize that team that was out there in the second half playing. When the game was three points with five minutes to go, I really thought we were going to pull it out and find a way to win."

"I think that their youth showed to where the pressure started building when shots weren't going in, and then we started acting out of character. If shots would have gone in early, maybe we would have settled in the game a little better, but the guys started putting more and more pressure on themselves and that caused more and more mistakes to be made."

Next up
Georgia Southern returns all five starters and 13 lettermen to the 2016-17 squad.

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