There wasn’t a way to sugarcoat what happened at Hanner Fieldhouse on Monday night.
A diminished Georgia Southern team was no match for powerful Appalachian State, which handed the Eagles a 77-55 Southern Conference loss, GSU’s seventh in eight games. The 22-point defeat was the Eagles’ worst home loss since The Citadel left Hanner with a 68-45 victory on Jan. 31, 1998.
“Right now we are a depleted basketball team,” junior forward Louis Graham said. “It is the hard part of the season, and now is when you need to be your healthiest. And right now we are not.”
Playing the second straight game without starting point guard Dwayne Foreman, who was benched with a hamstring injury, the Eagles were unable to beat the Mountaineers in transition as they did in a three-point loss in Boone, N.C., earlier this year.
“When we don’t have Dwayne, our transition game is pretty much null and void,” GSU coach Jeff Price said. “That’s something we need to understand right now.”
Said Graham: “You never know how big a player is until he’s gone. (Dwayne) picks up the tempo — he’s gives you that drive, that go. He pushes it and makes us run with him because he has the ball.”
With the loss, Georgia Southern (10-13, 3-9) dropped into a tie with Wofford for last place in the SoCon’s South Division. Appalachian (18-6, 10-3) took sole possession of first place in the North thanks to Wofford’s overtime win against UNC Greensboro.
Senior guard Donte Gennie turned in a team-high 14 points for GSU, while Graham added 12 and 10 rebounds for his for his third-straight double-double and league-leading 11th this season. Freshman point guard Antoine Johnson, making his second career start, finished with 10 points.
As a team, the Eagles struggled offensively, shooting less than 40 percent from the field for the second straight game. GSU was 19-for-52 (36.5 percent) Monday.
“It’s not like us to shoot that low,” Graham said. “That boils down to defense. Right now we are fighting for a win.”
Appalachian controlled the game from the start, cruising to a 20-8 lead 11:42 before the break after a Demetrius Scott layup. The Mountaineers ended the first half on an 8-2 run and took a 41-25 advantage into the locker room.
“There’s no question that tonight App was a more-talented, better basketball team,” Price said. “That was very obvious. We are very short-handed, and it’s hard to keep our heads up.”
D.J. Thompson scored a game-high 24 for Appalachian, which has won four straight against the Eagles. Scott (16), Jeremy Clayton (13), and Nathan Cranford also reached double figures for the Mountaineers.
Despite trailing by 16 at the break, GSU was only outscored by six in the final half, which was somewhat of a silver lining for Price.
“In the second half I thought we showed a lot of fight,” Price said. “I thought we lost some fight in the first half — that really upset me. We talked about it at halftime, and I thought we came out in the second half and — regardless of how it got — I thought we fought pretty hard for the people we had on the floor.”
Senior starter Jimmy Tobias played just seven minutes and was benched the entire second half.
“Everybody needs to have an understanding of who’s running the program,” Price said. “I didn’t think his actions warranted more playing time.”
Georgia Southern, which entered the game shooting a SoCon-worst 59.6 percent from the free-throw line, started by hitting its first 11 free-throw attempts. But after the promising start, the Eagles missed their next seven and ended the game on a 4-for-13 skid.
“Talk about shooting your confidence — we actually have a chance to make it respectable and we miss about seven consecutive free throws,” Price said. “That just demoralizes and breaks your spirit”
The Eagles will look to turn things around Saturday when they begin a two-game road trip at Western Carolina.
“It’s hard to keep people positive,” Price said. “The best I can say is people better get their shots while we’re down because we are not going to stay this way. We are going to be back at full strength, we’ll continue to improve and hopefully get better come tournament time.”
Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.
A diminished Georgia Southern team was no match for powerful Appalachian State, which handed the Eagles a 77-55 Southern Conference loss, GSU’s seventh in eight games. The 22-point defeat was the Eagles’ worst home loss since The Citadel left Hanner with a 68-45 victory on Jan. 31, 1998.
“Right now we are a depleted basketball team,” junior forward Louis Graham said. “It is the hard part of the season, and now is when you need to be your healthiest. And right now we are not.”
Playing the second straight game without starting point guard Dwayne Foreman, who was benched with a hamstring injury, the Eagles were unable to beat the Mountaineers in transition as they did in a three-point loss in Boone, N.C., earlier this year.
“When we don’t have Dwayne, our transition game is pretty much null and void,” GSU coach Jeff Price said. “That’s something we need to understand right now.”
Said Graham: “You never know how big a player is until he’s gone. (Dwayne) picks up the tempo — he’s gives you that drive, that go. He pushes it and makes us run with him because he has the ball.”
With the loss, Georgia Southern (10-13, 3-9) dropped into a tie with Wofford for last place in the SoCon’s South Division. Appalachian (18-6, 10-3) took sole possession of first place in the North thanks to Wofford’s overtime win against UNC Greensboro.
Senior guard Donte Gennie turned in a team-high 14 points for GSU, while Graham added 12 and 10 rebounds for his for his third-straight double-double and league-leading 11th this season. Freshman point guard Antoine Johnson, making his second career start, finished with 10 points.
As a team, the Eagles struggled offensively, shooting less than 40 percent from the field for the second straight game. GSU was 19-for-52 (36.5 percent) Monday.
“It’s not like us to shoot that low,” Graham said. “That boils down to defense. Right now we are fighting for a win.”
Appalachian controlled the game from the start, cruising to a 20-8 lead 11:42 before the break after a Demetrius Scott layup. The Mountaineers ended the first half on an 8-2 run and took a 41-25 advantage into the locker room.
“There’s no question that tonight App was a more-talented, better basketball team,” Price said. “That was very obvious. We are very short-handed, and it’s hard to keep our heads up.”
D.J. Thompson scored a game-high 24 for Appalachian, which has won four straight against the Eagles. Scott (16), Jeremy Clayton (13), and Nathan Cranford also reached double figures for the Mountaineers.
Despite trailing by 16 at the break, GSU was only outscored by six in the final half, which was somewhat of a silver lining for Price.
“In the second half I thought we showed a lot of fight,” Price said. “I thought we lost some fight in the first half — that really upset me. We talked about it at halftime, and I thought we came out in the second half and — regardless of how it got — I thought we fought pretty hard for the people we had on the floor.”
Senior starter Jimmy Tobias played just seven minutes and was benched the entire second half.
“Everybody needs to have an understanding of who’s running the program,” Price said. “I didn’t think his actions warranted more playing time.”
Georgia Southern, which entered the game shooting a SoCon-worst 59.6 percent from the free-throw line, started by hitting its first 11 free-throw attempts. But after the promising start, the Eagles missed their next seven and ended the game on a 4-for-13 skid.
“Talk about shooting your confidence — we actually have a chance to make it respectable and we miss about seven consecutive free throws,” Price said. “That just demoralizes and breaks your spirit”
The Eagles will look to turn things around Saturday when they begin a two-game road trip at Western Carolina.
“It’s hard to keep people positive,” Price said. “The best I can say is people better get their shots while we’re down because we are not going to stay this way. We are going to be back at full strength, we’ll continue to improve and hopefully get better come tournament time.”
Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.
