STATESBORO– In a game featuring seven lead changes and 11 ties, Georgia Southern men's basketball earned its third win over Coastal Carolina, winning 73-70 on Thursday.
The Eagles (3-15, 3-3 Sun Belt) won for the first time when trailing with 2:00 left this season as Coastal (5-12, 2-4) did not score over the final 1:30 after going up 70-67.
"40 minutes is a long time, and you have to have a next-play mentality," head coach
Charlie Henry said."It's an emotional game, but you can't get too high or too low, and I thought the guys did a pretty good job with that."
The Chants scored first, but
Tyren Moore and
Eren Banks quickly erased the deficit to go up 5-2 following the latter's three. Banks had 14 points in the first frame.
Both teams traded blows for the remainder of the half, as
Jamar Franklin's free throw gave the Eagles a 34-33 lead heading into the locker room.
A 9-0 run for the visitors made it a nine-point deficit for the Eagles, but clutch three-pointers by
Eugene Brown III and Franklin knotted the game at 52 and forced a Coastal timeout.
The Chants once again pushed the lead to eight, but more clutch buckets by Brown and Banks made it a two-point game late.
Down 70-67, Moore shed a defender and nailed a corner three to tie the game up. Coastal missed both free throws and
Nate Brafford was fouled after a huge offensive rebound.
After hitting one-of-two, Brafford grabbed a huge defensive rebound on Coastal's attempt on the other end. He sunk both free throws, and Moore grabbed the rebound on Coastal's game-tying attempt to seal a 73-70 win.
Banks led the way with a career-best 19 points on 6-9 shooting, one of four double-digit scorers for GS.
"It was all about coming together as a team and getting stops tonight," Banks said. "We just had to get stops, and we had key stops in big moments."
Moore (17),
Avantae Parker (11) and Brown (10) each scored in double figures, with Parker's being a career-best. Moore led the Eagles with seven rebounds.
The Eagles survived shooting 41.2 percent overall and 38.5 percent from three in front of a raucous Hanner Fieldhouse, which made the difference in the win, the Eagles' fourth-straight over Coastal Carolina in the all-time series.
"The crowd was awesome tonight," Henry said. "We want to play well for them, and we want to win for them, they've been awesome and it's good to get a win for them."
A return date with Georgia State is in the cards on Saturday.
