Walking into Hanner Fieldhouse for the last time this season and for senior night, the successful Eagles basketball team looked to take one final win over the Troy University Trojans.

First Half

What looked like it could have been a slow start for the Eagles as they missed a few shots and let the Trojans take a small 4-0 lead on them, it didn’t take them long to turn on the intensity and regain the lead.

“They handled adversity,” Coach Mark Byington said.

Senior Jake Allsmiller came out hot, sinking two three pointers early and back-to-back to retake the lead for GS, and it wasn’t hard for them to hold the rest of the half.

Troy made mistakes like turnovers, going back court and overall bad decisions that the Eagles were only too happy to take advantage of, driving every turnover and making use of every possession they gained.

The Eagles also came out strong with their passing game and teamwork in the first half, as many points came from great assists and passing connections made.

Showing that the Eagles are a well-rounded team, the bench points totaled at 18 points while the Trojans only put up two points from their bench.

The Eagles left the court in the first half shooting 46 percent from the floor, and with a lead of 40-33 over the Trojans.

Second Half

The Eagles seemed to come out slow again; the Trojans took advantage of that and shaved the GS lead to only one point.

The Eagles snapped out of it after a quick timeout and answered with a quick 8-0 run over the Trojans to get back their measurable lead, Jake Allsmiller contributing six of those points from those three pointers he’d been on fire with all night.

{{tncms-inline account=”George-Anne Sports” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Allsmiller’s seventh 3 has Tione Jones and the rest of Hanner on their feet! <a href="https://t.co/F9SauPYefJ">pic.twitter.com/F9SauPYefJ</a></p>— George-Anne Sports (@GeorgeAnneSport) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeAnneSport/status/970075122068488193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/GeorgeAnneSport/status/970075122068488193″ type=”twitter”}}

Troy again answered to the Eagles’ run as they put forth the effort to trim the lead down again to as little as three points.

The rest of the game showed to be a tight game with the Eagles only holding a five to six point lead over the Trojans, but the Eagles still prevailed and took home the win over the Trojans 89-83 for their last game in Hanner for the season.

“Our guys held on until the final minute,” Byington said. “These guys won’t forget this.”

Tookie Brown led the Eagles for the night with 28 points, followed by Jake Allsmiller who had a beyond impressive game, sinking eight three-pointers and tallying up 24 points. His eight three-pointers also moved him into second all-time in three-pointers made at GS.

“I’m never going to forget this for the rest of my life,” Allsmiller said. “This is by far my favorite game I’ve ever played.”

The Eagles walked out of Hanner from their final game of regular season play coming to a close triumphant and with a winning regular season record of 20-11.

“Now we’re trying to create something even more special down in New Orleans,” Byington said.

What’s Next

Being third seed, the Eagles are playing in the Sun Belt Championship in New Orleans Friday, March 9.

McClain Baxley contributed to this report.

Kaitlin Sells, The George-Anne sports reporter, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu