STATESBORO – Tookie Brown scored 23 points, and Georgia Southern made eight of its last 12 3-pointers to make a late push over UTA 74-59 in Sun Belt Conference men's basketball action Saturday afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse.
Brown made 3 of 4 from long distance and had a huge blocked shot for the Eagles (15-7, 6-3) to go along with four assists and three steals.
Quan Jackson chipped in 12 points and made all three of his 3-point attempts, and
Mike Hughes added 11 points.
Ike Smith recorded 10 points and six rebounds.
Kevin Hervey made 11 of 23 from the floor to score a game-high 29 points and added eight rebounds, and Link Kabadyundi finished with eight points and 11 rebounds for UTA (13-10, 4-6).
The story
After UTA cut a 10-point GS lead to seven,
Jake Allsmiller missed a 3-pointer for the Eagles and Erick Neal got out in transition for the Mavs. As he went up to lay it in, Brown came up from behind and slapped the ball off the backboard. The play sparked an 11-4 run, which included 3-pointers by Allsmiller and Jackson, to push the lead back to 12.
Hughes and Brown each made two free throws in the last 1:30, and
Shawn O'Connell put down an emphatic dunk off an Allsmiller assist with 40 seconds left to finish the scoring.
The Eagles had to battle back from an early 21-8 deficit as Hervey made four of his first five shots and scored 10 in the first eight minutes of the game. GS responded with an 18-7 spurt, aided by nine free throws, and a transition 3-pointer by Jackson from the wing trimmed the margin to 28-26 with 3:20 to go in the half.
After shooting 2 of 21 from downtown Thursday night, GS started the game making 1 of 12 from beyond the arc but wound up 9 for 24 for the night. UTA committed 19 turnovers that turned into 22 GS points.
Quotables
Junior guard Tookie Brown
On the blocked shot
"I was waiting to see if he was going to throw a lob or if he was going to lay it up, and I saw he looked at me so I just went up there and tried to get the block."
On coming off the loss to Texas State
"A lot of guys were down after that Texas State game. They felt like they didn't do enough to get the win, and so tonight, a lot of guys like David-Lee Jones, Shawn and Coye, stepped up."
On team getting out of shooting slump
"Coach always tells us to keep shooting. We're a team that makes 3s, and lot of guys made tough shots tonight and it was a night where we wound up shooting pretty well."
Head coach Mark Byington
On making 3-pointers tonight
"In the Texas State game, we took some hard ones, but then we had some easy ones and we couldn't make those either. It was a little bit the same thing today to where we just got kind of rattled and frustrated a little early, but I thought our guys competed all the way through tonight. The biggest thing our guys can learn from this game is that we prepared really hard for this game in practice yesterday and shootaround today. I hope they understand that if they work hard like that, good things will happen. It doesn't guarantee it, but that will give us the best chance. I thought we really won the game today yesterday in practice."
Next up
The Eagles travel to Arkansas to face Little Rock and Arkansas State next week. GS plays Little Rock Thursday night and travels to Arkansas State for a Saturday night contest on ESPN3.
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