MONROE, La. – Tookie Brown posted 19 points and eight rebounds, and Georgia Southern overcame a 16-point second-half deficit to earn a 62-60 Sun Belt men's basketball victory over ULM Monday night in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Mike Hughes scored 13 points, all in the second half, and added five rebounds and three assists, and Ike Smith tallied nine points and five rebounds for Georgia Southern (12-6, 5-0), which won its sixth straight contest.

Marvin Jean-Pierre recorded 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocks to lead ULM (6-12, 0-5), and Wade Martin scored 11. Nick Coppola chipped in 10 points and three assists.

The story
The Eagles trailed 39-23 early in the second half after shooting 28 percent in the first period, and not much was going right. B.J. Gladden provided a spark with five points in a 10-2 spurt that brought the margin to eight, and shortly after, the Eagles went on a 17-6 run and took a 50-49 lead on a Hughes jumper with 5:53 to play.

Brown hit a contested 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down and added a jumper to push the lead to 57-51 with 2:51 left. The Warhawks cut the margin in half with 1:40 to play, but Hughes canned a huge triple from the corner for a six-point cushion with 28.5 left. After a 3-pointer by Jean-Pierre, the Eagles got the ball inbounded to Brown, and the sophomore hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 13.9 remaining to seal the victory.

Trailing 19-17, ULM outscored GS 9-2 over the final 5:06 of the first half and opened the second period with 13-2 spurt to take control of the contest. ULM canned four 3-pointers during the stretch with Martin and Jean-Pierre each netting eight points, and Martin's triple put ULM ahead, 39-23, 4:28 into the stanza. 

Quotables from head coach Mark Byington
"I told the guys when I walked in the locker room that for the first time in a long time, I'm speechless. Usually I have all kinds of words. What resiliency, what belief and we got some tough guys. It was almost every single thing in the world was going against us, and I used the line about four or five times. I said, forget what happened, and let's start a new game.' We had some guys jump start us. Tookie got hot and made some big plays and some tough shots and his pass to Mike Hughes in the corner to kind of seal the deal was a heck of a pass and then Mike just makes big shots and makes big plays. When he does things like that, it's contagious. Once Mike started making plays, I think guys started getting confident."

Next up
Georgia Southern returns home to face Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina next weekend. The Eagles tip off at 5 p.m. against App in a doubleheader with the women's team, and Monday's start time against Coastal Carolina is set for 7 p.m.

Promotions for Saturday: Blue Out Game - Wear your best True Blue colors, Men's Basketball Alumni Day - All men's basketball alumni are invited back for a fun weekend, Teddy Bear Toss - Fans are encouraged to bring new or slightly-used medium-sized teddy bears to throw on the court and win a prize during halftime of the game. The teddy bears will be donated to the Safe Haven organization. Promotions for Monday: Salute to Heroes Night - Join us as we honor members of the military, police department, fire department and EMS. Active duty and veteran military personnel and first responders will be admitted free and may purchase discounted $5 general admission tickets for their families.

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. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.