The Georgia Southern men’s basketball team extended their winning streak to five as they claimed an 81-66 victory over Little Rock in a heated match Thursday night.

UALR tried to come out strong, dunking the ball right off the bat in attempts to throw the Eagles off. Their trials failed as GS responded by grabbing an early lead and running up the score with a few of their own dunks and other impressive plays for the remainder of the game.

“We knew from the jump they were coming to play hard,” senior guard Tookie Brown said. “They’ve got some good guys on their team, but I mean by their record they play real hard every night and I’ve got to give them credit for that. I think tonight we were prepared for them.”

Junior forward Isaiah Crawley was on fire as he reached a season high on the night with 20 points in the 23 minutes of play the forward saw. Shooting 61.5 percent from the floor, Crawley ended up being a huge contributor to the Eagle win. While showing dunk after dunk on the offense, Crawley also continued to be solid on the defense, racking up three rebounds and one steal.

Brown was also on fire as he contributed 19 points to the GS win. The senior played with a high level of intensity after UALR tried to challenge him, and Brown responded by shooting 58.3 percent from the floor as well as collecting two steals.

“It’s clicking now,” Brown said discussing the Eagles’ recent success. “I mean I feel like we still got some more left in us to keep going, to get better.”

The Eagles held the lead for 38 minutes of the total game, allowing UALR to see the lead for only less than a minute. As a team, GS shot 54.5 percent from the floor as well as shooting 62.1 percent on free-throws- a big deal considering 18 of their 81 points came from free-throws.

After stealing the win, GS progresses to an overall record of 19-10 and a conference record of 11-5, tying them for second in the Sun Belt.

“I thought that was a typical end of February almost early March hard fought game,” Head Coach Mark Byington said. “I continually think we’re getting better. I’m not worried about a streak or how many games we’ve won, we’re just trying to get better.”

The Eagles will next take on Arkansas State Saturday in their second to last home game and regular season game of the year. Tip off is set for 5 p.m. in Hanner and the match will be streamed on TrueBlue Live.

Amanda Arnold contributed quotes to this article.

Kaitlin Sells, The George-Anne Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu