Heading into the final week of regular season play in the Sun Belt Conference, no team is riding higher than Georgia Southern.
The Eagles got off to fast starts in both halves and withstood determined play from an Arkansas State squad playing for its postseason life in notching an 81-70 victory Saturday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
“I felt like we came ready to play today,” GS coach Mark Byington said. “We had a lull in the first half. I think some guys might have been tired after a busy academic week and a physical game on Thursday, but I was proud of the way we got back into the game and got the win.”
Tookie Brown scored 17, Isaiah Crowley netted 15 and Calvin Wishart and Simeon Carter each poured in 12 as the Eagles (20-10, 12-5 Sun Belt) kept alive hopes of a bye all the way to the semifinals of the upcoming Sun Belt tournament — as well as a shot at the regular season conference title.
Zone defenses have given the Eagles trouble at times this season, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday. A swarming press and trap allowed Georgia Southern to force turnovers and create points in transition. And even when the Red Wolves (12-17, 6-10) were able to set their defense, the Eagles tore through it to the tune of 46 points in the paint and a 60.8 field goal percentage for the game.
Wishart connected on a pair of 3-pointers early that seemed to make Arkansas State wary of the perimeter. From there, constant drives by Brown, combined with quick and clean passes to the baseline, set up a parade of dunks and easy layups that mirrored Thursday’s win over Little Rock.
“We got a little sloppy and missed some passes,” Brown said. “But overall I think we did a good job of attacking their zone.”
“It gets pretty fun when we get the offense going like that,” said Crawley, who slammed home two of the Eagles’ seven dunks on the night.
An early double-digit lead for Georgia Southern was slowly trimmed down by Arkansas State, which was led by Ty Cockfield’s 17 points. The Red Wolves pulled even at 30-30 on a Tristin Walley layup with just under three minutes left in the first half, but the Eagles closed out the half on a 13-5 run and ASU never took a lead in the game.
Now all eyes turn to a regular season finale against Georgia State in Hanner next weekend.
The Panthers from Atlanta won the first matchup between the rivals, but the Eagles can guarantee a better finish in the standings with a win next Saturday. The winner of the game is assured of a top-2 finish, which comes with a reward of a week of rest and a bye all the way to the semifinals of the Sun Belt tournament in New Orleans. Depending on the outcome of Texas State’s final game - and possibly some tiebreaker scenarios - both teams will also enter the game in the running for a regular season championship, which would carry with it the top seed in the SBC tournament and a guaranteed berth in the NIT if they fail to make the NCAA tournament field.
A rivalry, revenge, tournament implications and more are sure to make for a dramatic final game of the season, but the Eagles will try their best to maintain focus.
“There are going to be a lot of distractions,” Byington said. “We’ve got to play the game on the court against what is going to be a very good team. You can’t worry about the fans, the cameras and all of that. To steal from Bill Belichick, you’ve just got to do your job.”
