The Georgia Southern men’s basketball team dropped a heartbreaking 76-75 loss to Arkansas State on Senior Day. 

The Eagles were leading 73-69 with a minute to go but then the Red Wolves got a turnover and then a three-pointer that made it a one point game. 

Calvin Wishart was fouled but missed the 1-and-1 free throw, which Arkansas State took advantage of, by scoring a layup with seven seconds remaining to take the 74-73 lead. 

McCadden managed to draw a foul and hit both free throws to take the 75-74 lead which forced the Red Wolves to try and heave up a half court shot with no timeouts. But, then Isaiah Crawley was called for a reach in foul against Christian Willis with 1.9 seconds left in the game. Willis then hit the two go-ahead free throws to take the 76-75 lead.

Calvin Wishart got off a half court shot but it fell short. 

“I mean we’re all heartbroken about this,” Head Coach Mark Byington said. “We played so much into this with all the hours put in and for it to come down to something like that, it’s unfortunate. It’s a bad ending.”

Isaiah Crawley led the Eagles with 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Quan Jackson and Ike Smith had 14 points respectively. 

With the loss the Eagles dropped from the third seed to the fifth seed for the Sun Belt tournament after South Alabama and Georgia State won.

Before the game six seniors were honored, guard Ike Smith, forward Isaiah Crawley, David Lee Jones Jr., Simeon Carter, Jordan Walker and Trey Dawkins. 

“These seniors have won a lot of games and the guys who have been here for three years, they’ve averaged over 20 wins a season for the last three years,” Byington said. “That hasn’t happened at Georgia Southern the last 30 years and they’ve won a lot of games. So the time for them to reflect would be when the season is over but we’ve got our biggest games of the year coming up.”

Gs will host the winner of Louisiana and Arkansas State on Monday in Hanner at 7 p.m for the start of the second round of the Sun Belt tourney.

Elijah Jackson, The George-Anne Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu