The Georgia Southern men's basketball team earned another split this past weekend in Mobile as they knocked off South Alabama 84-75 in overtime Friday night, and then losing 62-48 on Saturday leaving their Sun Belt record at .500 at 4-4.
The Eagles are currently alone in third place in the East Division standings, and like many teams in the league have struggled to play consistently in the new back-to-back Friday and Saturday formats.
“There have been a lot of splits in the league this year,” said Coach Brian Burg. “You have to have the mental toughness, and the maturity to be able to put forth back-to-back efforts. If you are fortunate enough to win on Friday, you have to be able to wipe the slate clean that evening, and have the right mental approach going into that next day. We had a great game on Friday, and just came out flat Saturday. Give credit to South Alabama for bouncing back too.”
The Eagles won Friday’s game thanks in large part to shooting lights out from the three-point line. The Eagles were 14-26 for 53.8% on Friday and were 10-13 from the free throw line. On Saturday the Eagles managed just 8-36 from behind the arc and shot only eight free throws.
“You look at Friday’s game and we shot a great percentage, but it was the right three-point shots we took,” said Burg. “Saturday, we settled. We took was too many three-point shots, 36 is way too many for us to be shooting. We have to have the mental toughness to get the ball where we want it, and get to the rim, and the free throw line more.. That is on me, and we will do a better job of preparing them this week.”
One of the players that stepped up in the Eagles win on Friday was junior Kaden Archie who had his first double figure scoring game since scoring 23 points at USC Upstate on Dec. 5. Archie came through with 17 points, four assists and three blocked shots in the Eagle victory.
“A lot of time people look at production from just an aspect of how many points someone scored,” said Burg. “If you look at how Kaden played Friday, sure he scored well, but he actually defended at a very high level. He had the right mindset this past week and has had another really good week of practice, and we are looking for bug things from him this week.”
Last week the Eagles played South Alabama for the fourth time this year. This week the Eagles will get their first look at Coast al Carolina. The Chanticleers are led by head Coach Cliff Ellis and are currently 11-3 overall and 5-2 in Sun Belt play. Coastal is currently only a half-game behind division leaders Appalachian State.
“They are very talented and have a hall of fame coach,” said Burg. “Cliff Ellis has over 800 career wins and he has some elite level players. This is a very talented offensive minded team, who still have the ability to defend in multiple ways. We need to make sure we have a great week of preparation, and that we take the shots that we want to.”
The Chanticleers are led by DeVante’ Jones who is currently averaging over 22 points per game, and nearly seven rebounds per contest. Deanthony Tipler has primarily come off the bench, but is scoring 16 points per game, and shoots over 44% from the three-point line. Essam Mostafa is averaging nearly a double-double per game at 11.8 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per contest.
“This is an up-tempo team that is going to get out and run,” said Burg. “They have multiple play makers as well as an inside presence and are very deep and talented. We have to make sure we do the things we can control like taking care of the basketball and getting back in transition defense and take quality shots on the offensive end.”
The game between the eagles and the Chanticleers has been moved in order to accommodate television. The game Friday will be on ESPN 2 and will start at 8:30. The game Saturday has been moved from 3 to 4 p.m.
