GSU Eagles Close Non-Conference Play with Loss to North Carolina A&T

STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball closed non-conference play with a 71-65 loss to North Carolina A&T at Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday night. The Eagles open league play in one week at Wofford on Saturday night, January 12th.

“I really felt like we were turning the corner with our effort and consistency, but consistency has been the word that has haunted us the entire non-conference season,” said Head Coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young. “We’ve got to do a better job of playing better early in games, we gave them a lead early tonight. The thing we learned tonight is that we need to do a better job at managing close games late.”

Junior Eric Ferguson, the SoCon Player of the Month in December, paced the Eagles with his fifth double-double of the season. He scored 22 points and 13 rebounds as he became the first SoCon player to post five double-doubles this season.

Tre Bussey and C.J. Reed each posted matching 12 points outings. Reed made a pair of baskets from downtown, but went 6-for-6 from the free throw stripe against A&T. Bussey reached double figures with four field goals, one from downtown and a trio of free throws. Reed added five assists to lead the Eagles.

North Carolina A&T had three players in double figures with both Adrian Powell and Jean Louisme scoring 23 points each. Jeremy Underwood added 12 off the bench as the Aggies scored 24 points in the paint and 18 off offensive rebounds. A&T out-rebounded the Eagles 38-34 and had 16 offensive rebounds to the Eagles’ 13.

Cleon Roberts broke a streak of three-straight games without a point with nine points in the contest. He made his first three attempts from beyond the arc as the freshman regained the hot-hand.

With 13:27 remaining in the first half, Ferguson picked up his 500th career rebound with a board on the offensive side. He becomes the 11th member of the 500 rebound club at Georgia Southern and the 10th player to score 1,000 career points and pull 500 career rebounds.

A 15-2 run by the Aggies in the first half allowed the visitors lead by as many as 11 points in the first half and take a 34-28 advantage into the halftime break.

Just a few moments into the second half, Georgia Southern went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 36-36 thanks to back-to-back bombs from downtown by Roberts, the second coming with 17:30 remaining. The teams traded the lead with neither squad able to pull an advantage of more than four points over the better part of the next 10 minutes.

Georgia Southern entered the final five minutes of the game down by three points, 56-53. A three-pointer by Reed with 4:09 brought the Eagles even at 56-56. A pair of back-to-back baskets by A&T, the second coming with 2:26 remaining gave the Aggies a 62-58 lead.

Coming out of the final media timeout, Ferguson made an old fashioned three point play to cut the lead to one at 62-61 with just better than a minute remaining. Over the final minute, A&T outscored the Eagles 9-4 to take the 71-65 victory over the Eagles.

Georgia Southern returns to SoCon play next weekend with a trip to Wofford on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Georgia Southern returns home on Monday, January 14th, for a crucial home date with the Davidson Wildcats.

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FINAL STATS (PDF)

COURTESY GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS