NEW ORLEANS – Georgia Southern came up short against South Alabama for the third time in as many tries this season, and this one is sending the Eagles back to Statesboro for good.
    Georgia Southern (14-17) never led and trailed by as many as 18 against the Jaguars (14-18) Thursday night in the opening round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament. The Eagles got to within two points late, but could never get over the hump as the Jaguars claimed a 67-61 victory.
    The Eagles entered the season with few expectations and the nation’s youngest roster. Plenty of doubters were silenced as GSU showed itself to be a contender throughout the season, but the Eagles are now headed home after just one game in New Orleans.
    “We just weren’t ourselves,” GSU coach Mark Byington said. “The team out there tonight wasn’t indicative of the team we’ve grown to be. You saw what we can be in the second half, but we just didn’t make enough plays.”
    Shaq Calhoun led the Jags with 15 points while Nick Stover, Ken Williams and John Brown scored 14, 13 and 12, respectively.
    Ike Smith and Tookie Brown led the Eagles with 15 points each while Mike Hughes scored 10, but was limited for most of the second half due to foul trouble.
    Georgia Southern ran into plenty of shooting difficulties in two games at the Lakefront Arena in last season’s tournament. The struggle continued Monday as the Eagles shot just 19-of-57 from the floor for a meager 33 percent clip.
    Throughout the season, the Eagles’ high points were marked by stellar long-range shooting. A 4-of-23 performance from beyond the arc was a far cry from their potential and came at the worst possible moment.
    The Jaguars stymied the Eagles with a tough zone defense in their two regular season tilts before switching to a man-to-man scheme for the majority of Thursday’s game.
    “We knew we wanted to play man for the first four minutes,” South Alabama coach Matthew Graves said. “We got to the media timeout, looked at the score, and figured we could live with that, so we stayed in it. When we’re switching off and rotating and rebounding like we did tonight, we’re a tough team to score on.”
    The final shooting phase of the game – sadly – was no better for Georgia Southern.
    The Eagles missed on six of their first seven free throw attempts and missed 11 for the game.
    “All season long, we were one of the top teams in free throw percentage and then we leave 11 of them out there,” Byington said. “We were also one of the best at not turning the ball over, but I think we did it four times at the end when the game was still within our reach. Maybe we showed our youth a little bit.”
    South Alabama’s shooting wasn’t much better as the Jags connected on just 36.9 percent from the field for the night. But 15 offensive rebounds led to several easy second chance points. Calhoun connected on a jumper from the free throw line with 2:40 to go and Barrington Stevens buried a 3-pointer to give the Jags a seven-point lead heading into the final minutes.
    The Jaguars also scored 16 points in transition, including six over the final two minutes that sank any hope of a Georgia Southern comeback.
    “The end is never easy,” Byington said. “This was a fun group to coach. It’s a disappointing way to end this season, but I know we can get better moving forward.”
    While Georgia Southern is now done for the spring and summer, South Alabama will fight on. The Jaguars will take on fourth-seeded UL Lafayette tonight at 6 p.m. in the tournament quarterfinals.
 
    Mike Anthony may be reached at (912) 489-9408.