STATESBORO – Tookie Brown and Ike Smith combined for 45 points, and Georgia Southern backed up its season opening win at Wake Forest with a convincing 77-53 men's basketball victory over CSU Bakersfield Monday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

Brown scored 24 and missed just two shots on the night as the junior went 7-of-8 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line for the Eagles (2-0). Smith netted 21 points and added seven rebounds, and Montae Glenn tallied nine points and seven boards.

Fallou Ndoye tallied 13 points and six rebounds to lead CSU Bakersfield (1-1). Damiyne Durham added 12 points and six boards, and Rickey Holden chipped in nine points, six rebounds and five assists.

The first meeting between the schools serves as the front end of a home-and-home series this season. Georgia Southern returns the game Dec. 16.

The story
Glenn scored five points, and Smith added a pair of triples as GS opened the contest with a 15-3 run. The Eagles held the Roadrunners to 1-of-7 from the field to start the game, and CSU Bakersfield made just three of its first 16 shots. The Eagles never led by less than six points for the rest of the game, and the margin grew to 17 at the break. 

Hamilton scooped in a nifty layup and Brown stole a pass and was fouled trying a triple with 1.1 on the clock. The junior hit all three from the charity stripe for a 36-19 halftime cushion. The margin grew to as many as 29 points on a Glenn putback dunk with 7:28 left in the game. The Eagles forced 18 turnovers and scored 20 off the miscues.

Quotables
Junior forward Montae Glenn
On 3-pointer to start the game
"I saw Mike go baseline, and when he threw it to me, I took a peek at the shot clock and there was only like three seconds left. So I was like, 'I might as well shoot it.'"

On getting offensive rebounds
"I just go to the rim. Once somebody shoots, I can kind of tell where the ball is going so I just run to the rim and grab it or try to tip it in."

Head coach Mark Byington
On playing CSU Bakersfield
"We had our guys' attention because we know how good they are, and our guys were excited to play. We have a lot of respect for them so we knew it was going to be a battle."

On taking care of the ball
"They're defense is good, and I thought we made some tough shots. Montae Glenn making a 3 is not something we draw up in the playbook, but he made it and looked comfortable doing it. They are really good guarding the ball. They have a great style and they get into you, and the one thing we didn't do is flinch. We only had eight turnovers and a couple were at the end of the game. We took care of the ball and got shots every possession and kept attacking."

On defense
"We had stretches where we were really good on defense but we didn't maintain it all the way through. The encouraging thing for us is that we played better tonight then we did against Wake Forest. We played defense for a longer period of time. Our defensive intensity and how long we carried it through was about half the game, and we have to be able to extend that longer and not give up any easy baskets."

Next up
Georgia Southern opens the Gulf Coast Showcase at home against Bluefield State Thursday at 7 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse. The tournament continues with three contests at Germain Arena in Estero, Fla., next week.

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