STATESBORO- The Georgia Southern men’s basketball team lost to App State for the second time this season, 62-57, in the last home game of the month. The loss drops GS to 16-11 overall and 10-6 in league play. 

Though the team was never fully in sync during the game, the Eagles looked ready to tuck away another conference win during the first half. Suddenly, State flipped a switch with about 10 minutes remaining in the second half and booted up their comeback. The defense was decent, according to Byington, but the offense let the game slip away.

“Sometimes you have moments like this in a season [and] I didn’t see this one coming,” Head Coach Mark Byington said. “We played poorly…We played selfish, we played like the weight of the world was on our shoulders. That’s on me…App State made the plays when they needed to make it and we didn’t make the plays.”

Here’s a quick look at the loss and what it means.

Top performers

The Eagles were led by redshirt-junior Quan Jackson, who finished with 17 points and four rebounds, while Mountaineer starting guard Adrian Delph tallied 21 points. There were three State players that finished with at least 12 points.

Key Stat

GS shot a season low of 11% from beyond the arc and allowed the offense to crumble after leading the game for about 36 minutes.

The bench only contributed six points in the game and the team accumulated 16 turnovers.

Notables

The team was on a three-game winning streak coming into this match-up and will not return back to Hanner Fieldhouse until March 3.

The team is now tied for third place in the conference with Texas State, as both hold a 10-6 Sun Belt record.

“We’ve got the toughest road swing of the year coming up,” Byington said. “It’s not gonna get any easier, so we gotta figure out what it is, bounce back and get tougher.”

Amanda Arnold, The George-Anne Managing Sports Editor, gasports@gerorgiasouthern.edu