STATESBORO – Tookie Brown scored 25 points, and Georgia Southern made 21-of-27 from the field in the second frame to overcome a 20-point halftime deficit and post a 98-89 men's basketball victory over George Mason Tuesday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

GS trailed by 22 with 2:16 left in the first half, making it the Eagles' biggest come-from-behind win since erasing a 24-point halftime deficit in a 91-88 overtime win over Little Rock Feb. 28, 1991.

Eagles of the Game
Quan Jackson scored all 21 of his points in the second half and added seven rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots, and Montae Glenn finished with 13 points and a pair of steals. Ike Smith posted 17 points and four rebounds and David-Lee Jones Jr. chipped in 11 points, four boards and a pair of steals.

Key moment
GS outscored Mason 24-6 to trim the margin to two points 8:02 into the second frame. Jackson scored 10 during the run, and Brown netted six for the Eagles (2-0). GS took its first lead since the early moments of the game with a Brown jumper with 8:20 to go and used a 10-3 spurt to open a 79-70 lead on a free throw by Isaiah Crawley with 4:45 to play. George Mason (0-3) made 11 3-pointers in the first half and shot 64 percent from the field and 73 percent from long distance.

Stat of the Game
Georgia Southern shot 78 percent in the second half and outscored the Patriots 64-35.

Quotables
Tookie Brown
"We just kept fighting, and a bunch of guys stepped up. Basketball is a game of runs, and everybody is going to have their moments, hitting 3s and stuff like that. We just had to stay focused and keep playing."

Quan Jackson
On second half
"Our mentality was to fight through adversity – just keep fighting and do what we do and see what happens."

On trip to the Bahamas
"It's a business trip for us. Enjoy the plane ride, but when we touch down, it's a business trip. We're going to have fun but we have work to do too."

Coach Mark Byington
"It was truly a tale of two halves. In the first half, we just weren't us, and I thought they played at a high level and played really good basketball. They got us completely on our heels, and I just wanted us to just be us in the second half. The good thing is that the guys didn't listen to me. I said, 'let's see if we can get this thing under 10 at the 10-minute mark,' and I think we were almost caught up by the 8-minute mark."

"The difference at halftime was the leadership of Montae Glenn and the leadership of Tookie Brown. Before I had my chance to talk to the team and make my points, they had already said what I was about to say. That will be what I remember from this game. The leadership part of it from our seniors was the thing that I was most impressed with."

Next up
The Eagles travel to The Island of the Bahamas Showcase, where they play three contests this weekend. GS takes on Florida Atlantic in the first contest Friday at 5 p.m. and plays either Pepperdine or Towson Saturday at either 2 p.m. or 8 p.m.