TROY, Ala. – Wesley Person tallied 19 points and five rebounds, and Troy held off a furious second-half rally by Georgia Southern to hang on for an 83-76 Sun Belt men's basketball victory over the Eagles Monday night in Trojan Arena.

Ike Smith finished with 20 points, four rebounds and three steals to lead Georgia Southern (14-8, 7-2), and Mike Hughes recorded 15 points and four rebounds. Tookie Brown collected 12 points and five assists, and Jake Allsmiller scored 12. Montae Glenn chipped in eight points and seven rebounds.

DeVon Walker posted 15 points and nine rebounds for Troy (12-11, 4-5), and Juan Davis Jr. scored 10. Kevin Baker added eight points, seven assists and six rebounds.

The story
Georgia Southern had cut a 22-point deficit to 73-72 with 3:20 to go, and the Eagles thought they had the ball back after a shot clock violation by the Trojans. The officials ruled that one second should be put back on the shot clock, and Baker hit a cutting Jeremy Hollimon, whose layup to beat the buzzer just rolled over the rim and in. The play ignited a 7-0 run for the Trojans, and a free throw by Person gave Troy an insurmountable 80-72 lead with 50 seconds left. 

Georgia Southern trailed 61-39 early in the second half but used a 24-5 run over 5:25 to get back in it, and Glenn's layup made the score 66-63 with 6:12 to go. The teams went back and forth from there before Hughes hit a 3-pointer and after the Eagles got a defensive stop, followed it with a driving layup to cut the margin to 72-70 with 4:03 remaining.

GS jumped out to an early 9-5 advantage to start the game, but Troy responded with a 15-3 spurt, capped by 3-pointers from Hollimon and B.J. Miller, giving the Trojans a 20-12 lead midway through the period. The Eagles battled back, and 3-pointer from the wing by Smith trimmed the margin to 35-32. But on the last possession of the half, Baker drove baseline and kicked it out to Person, who nailed a triple from the wing with 0.6 seconds left to give Troy a 38-32 cushion at the break.

Troy outscored Georgia Southern 23-7 over the first 7:48 of the second period and opened a 61-39 advantage on a jumper by Daniel Peace. Troy outrebounded GS 42-32 for the game and used 14 offensive boards to score 20 second-chance points.

Quotables from head coach Mark Byington
On the comeback
"We had great energy during that time. Our backs were against the wall, and we figured out that we have to turn it on. The discouraging thing is it took to that point for us to play with that urgency and that kind of energy. If we had come out that way from the start, then we wouldn't have been in that situation to have to fight back."

On the game
"I think we're learning, and this game is a message game to our guys. We've developed some habits that are not good habits that we have to fix. Everything we're not doing right, we've done right at times, and so the guys have it in them and we know how to bring it out of them. But we've gotten some bad habits with some toughness, some rebounding, not taking charges and not sacrificing our body. So right now, we're just kind of playing the game, and you can't do that on the road. The road is too hard, and these teams are just as talented or more talented than us so we have to change some things on that to get better." 

Next up
The Eagles return home for two games against the Sun Belt schools from the Pelican State. GS meets ULM Saturday (5 p.m.) and Louisiana Monday (7 p.m.). 

Promotions for Saturday: Pack the House in Pink - Join us in the fight against Breast Cancer. Make sure you wear pink to the game to show your support! Rocket Stars Show at Halftime - The tumbling and jumping gymnastics group, the Rocket Stars, will be performing at halftime of both games! Junior Eagle Club Day - All members of the Junior Eagle Club are invited to the games for a fun appreciation party! Promotions for Monday: Glowstick Night - Free glowsticks for fans! Make sure you wave your glowsticks high when the lights go out for the starting lineup! Student Pizza Eating Contest (Halftime) - Students will be able to register at the beginning of the spring semester for this contest. The winner will receive adidas gear and $50 cash!

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.