KENNESAW, Ga. – Tookie Brown tallied 29 points, five assists and two steals, and the Georgia Southern men's basketball team overcame the adversity that comes from life on the road in a 78-69 win over Kennesaw State Tuesday night in the KSU Convocation Center.

Brown shot 11-of-15 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line – including 4-of-4 in the final 53 seconds - and committed just one turnover in 36 minutes of work. Mike Hughes collected 12 points, six rebounds and two assists for Georgia Southern (9-3), while Montae Glenn chipped in with 12 points and eight boards. 

James Scott posted 21 points, including 13 in the second half, with three assists and two steals for Kennesaw State (2-9). Nick Masterson had 23 points, canning 6-of-7 from long range while adding five assists. Tyler Hooker scored 11 points in the second half, finishing with 13 points and six assists but also committed eight turnovers. Georgia Southern converted 14 Kennesaw State miscues into 24 points.

Flying back from the West Coast Sunday morning after Saturday's game at CSU Bakersfield, the Eagles spent time in all four time zones over a two-day stretch and did not get their luggage or arrive in Kennesaw until Monday night.

The story
After Kennesaw State trimmed a 16-point deficit to 62-60 with eight minutes to go, Hughes scored the first six points in a 12-6 Eagle run that pushed the lead back to eight. Hughes was fouled nailing a 3-pointer from the right wing with 7:02 to play and made the free throw to ignite the stretch, while Brown capped the run with two nifty drives to the bucket and then made all four of his free throws to ice the contest.
 
Georgia Southern made 13-of-16 from the floor to start the game, building a 19-6 lead behind seven points from Brown. After Kennesaw State cut the margin to 25-22, the Eagles finished the first half with a 16-6 run, keyed by three tough finishes around the rim by Brown.

GS got a full taste of the life of the road warrior in this leg of their road trip. The Eagles flew out of Bakersfield at 6:15 a.m. pacific time Sunday, but after connecting in Phoenix, their plane was diverted to Dallas because of the power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.

With the flight eventually canceled, GS waited in the airport for five hours to get rebooked for the east coast. Twenty members of the travel party were booked on a flight to Montgomery, Ala., and five were booked to Greenville, S.C., for Monday afternoon, but American Airlines refused to pull the luggage, so the Eagles spent Sunday night in Dallas without a change of clothes.

The Monday flights worked out well, but the luggage issue did not. The airline promised the luggage would meet the party of 20 in Montgomery, but it was sent to Atlanta instead. So, the Eagles had to make the two-hour, 18-minute trek from Montgomery to the Atlanta airport, retrieve the bags among hundreds strewn about baggage claim and then head up to Kennesaw to make an 8 p.m. practice. The Montgomery 20 met the Greenville 5 at the hotel, checked in at 7:40 p.m., and the team went straight to practice.

Quotables
Head coach Mark Byington
On the game
"It was a game with a tremendous amount of guts. Tookie Brown was tremendous. He's such a pleasure to coach.  I put so much on him but he responds every time. He's tired and everything else and he looked at me a couple times because he wanted to come out of the game, and I looked the opposite way because I didn't want to take him out of the game. It was a lot of courage and a lot of guts by the guys. It was a track meet, a fast-paced game."

On the travel to Kennesaw
"There was a long period there where we couldn't stop them, and I was a little disappointed in that because we had two great defensive efforts in the two games previous to this and we didn't have that tonight. Maybe we can attribute that to the long, strange trip we've been on. We got to the game tonight, and I was just happy we had uniforms the way things were going."

On shooting 61 percent in the first half 
"We wanted to attack the paint and take guys off the dribble, and we only shot four 3-pointers in the first half, which is strange for us. They were spaced out guarding our 3-point shooters, and we did a good job attacking and getting offensive rebounds. I thought Quan Jackson and Tookie put a lot of pressure on their defense attacking the rim."

Next up
The Eagles finish off the 14-day journey at ETSU Friday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and the game will air live on ESPN3.

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