TROY, Ala. – Tookie Brown recorded 31 points, seven rebounds and four assists and hit two huge free throws to lift Georgia Southern to an 86-80 men's basketball victory over Troy in the Sun Belt Conference opener Friday night in Trojan Arena.

After the Trojans whittled a nine-point deficit down to 82-80, Brown was fouled with 11.8 seconds left and calmly sank both free throws. The Eagles got a defensive stop, and Mike Hughes capped the scoring with two more from the charity stripe with 1.8 seconds on the clock.

Brown made 7 of 14 from the floor and knocked down 15 of 19 from the free-throw line for Georgia Southern (10-4, 1-0), while Hughes collected 13 points and six rebounds. Jake Allsmiller scored 12, and Montae Glenn finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth career double-double and fifth this season.

Wesley Person scored 29 points to lead Troy (6-8, 1-0), and Jordon Varnado, returning to action after missing seven games because of injury, showed no rust and tallied 18 points and six boards in 22 minutes off the bench.

The story
With the game tied 57-57, GS used an 11-4 run behind five points by Brown to open a 68-61 lead with 5:28 to play. The Trojans cut the margin to four, but Brown scored five more in another 11-4 run and opened a 77-68 cushion with two free throws with 1:29 remaining. 

Troy scored seven points in 25 seconds with the help of a steal and a Varnado 3-pointer and wound up getting to within two points with 11.8 seconds remaining, but the Eagles made 9-of-10 free throws in the final minute to seal the win with Brown netting six of them.

The Eagles trailed by as many as 14 in the first period but closed the half with a 12-4 run, keyed by two triples from Allsmiller. Troy shot 57 percent in the first half, but the Eagles held them to 39 percent in the second frame.

Georgia Southern reached the 10-win mark before the New Year for the first time in school history.

Quotables
Junior guard Tookie Brown
On defense in the second half
"Before the second half started, I told the guys we have to challenge each other to stop Persons and the other guys who can make shots on their team, and I think in the second half, we did a pretty good job of that."

On the slow start
"In the beginning of the game, we just did a lot of things we don't normally do, and we did a better job of just playing our game in the second half. We got into a rhythm late in the first half, and we were more aggressive. Quan was able to get to the rim, Jake started hitting a few shots and Mike started being aggressive."

Head coach Mark Byington
On the slow start
"It was definitely a tough start for us and we got down 14, but we were able to score the ball so we were able to trade buckets for a little bit. Even though the first half was a defensive disaster by us, the fact that were only down four at halftime was encouraging. We just couldn't stop them. They have so much offensive firepower out there, and we made mistakes and they made tough shots and made some plays. We just dug in much better in the second half. It wasn't schematic changes, it was more pride and commitment in our defense. I was really proud of our guys' response in the second half. We're not the young little team anymore, and this was a grown-man win."

On hustle plays and late-game situations
"Towards the end, I felt like things were going well and we were making shots hard, but then they rolled a 3-pointer in and some other things but getting loose balls in plays like that in a game in that situation were great. Quan's play, Tookie's play and Montae going to the free-throw line and making both free throws was big because we had to hold on towards the end. We didn't do some things at the end that as a coach you nitpick and think we can do better. We had a bad turnover, and it wound up being a 3-pointer by Varnado, and we had a five-second count that seemed quick but we had two timeouts, and we know better than that. We talked about it in the huddle, but we didn't get it done so that one is on me."

Next up
The Eagles cap their current six-game road swing at South Alabama Sunday, and tipoff is slated for 4:05 p.m. ET.

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