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Furman Falls Short At Georgia Southern, 72-70
Jan. 7, 2007
Statesboro, Ga. - Georgia Southern's Jimmy Tobias banked in a short jumper with 52 seconds left and the Eagles survived a flurry of Furman shots in the final seconds to prevail over the Paladins 72-70 Saturday at Hanner Fieldhouse.
With the victory, GSU moves to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in the league, while Furman falls to 7-7 and 1-2 in SoCon play.
After knotting the contest at 69-69 less than two minutes earlier, Tobias grabbed a rebound off of his own miss on the right side of the lane a buried a jumper to give the Eagles a 71-69 lead with less than a minute remaining. Diogo Salazar upped the lead to three with a foul shot, but missed the second opportunity from the charity stripe.
Stanley Jones trimmed the margin back to two by converting a free throw with 14 seconds left, but Furman was forced to foul when the second shot drew iron. Louis Graham missed the front end of a one-and-one situation. After clearing the rebound, Robby Bostain dribbled into the front court and passed to Eric Webb who had the ball knocked out of bounds with 3.3 seconds left.
After a failed inbounds attempt was deflected out of bounds, Webb took the inbounds pass along the right baseline. Graham swatted Webb's driving shot into the hands of Gerad Punch at the left elbow, but the senior's jumper fell short at the buzzer.
Georgia Southern shot a season-best 58.3% (28-48) from the floor, including 65.4% in the first half to earn its first conference win of the season. GSU dominated the glass holding a 34-18 rebounding advantage, including 14 offensive rebounds.
Junior Louis Graham led all scorers with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor. Donte Gennie finished with 15 points, but his streak of 10 straight games with a three-pointer was snapped. Junior Dwayne Foreman added 12 points and Tobias had 11 points and a season-high nine rebounds.
Moussa Diagne recorded a team-best 17 points, shooting 3-for-3 from behind the arc and 6-for-6 at the charity stripe for the Paladins. Eric Webb totaled 14 points, including four treys. Stanley Jones chipped in 11 points and Diagne tallied 10 to round out Furman's double figure scorers.
Georgia Southern used a 16-4 run to erase a 24-22 Furman lead and build a 10-point advantage with 4:35 left in the first period. The Paladins chipped away at the lead cutting the margin to 44-40 at intermission.
The Eagles led for the first 14 minutes of the second half until Webb netted a three-pointer from the left wing to give Furman a 67-66 lead with 5:42 left. The Paladins, however, connected on just one of the final eight shots and only one of their final three free throws the remainder of the contest.
Georgia Southern takes a day off before hosting Wofford Monday at 7:30 p.m. Furman will return home to host Davidson on Wednesday at the Bi-Lo Center in downtown Greenville. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Tickets for the Paladins return to downtown Greenville are $13. Season ticket holders can purchase additional tickets for just $11. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets at $8 each by contacting Dwight Covington by phone at (864) 607-5148.
