By: Mike Anthony

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

In a back-and-forth ballgame, Georgia Southern rarely had the upper hand and couldn’t find a way to come out on top in the end.

Georgia Southern battled East Tennessee State on Tuesday night at Hanner Fieldhouse. The Buccaneers held a small lead throughout most of the game, but the Eagles fought hard and edged ahead several times down the stretch.

Georgia Southern took a 59-58 lead with 5:17 to play, but East Tennessee powered through the final minutes to claim a 69-64 victory and hand the Eagles their first loss of the season.

“I thought we battled and I thought we showed toughness,” GS coach Mark Byington said. “This will come back and help us later on. We missed some shots late and they made them. We did a lot of things right. The things we did wrong that cost us, I know we can fix.”

Tookie Brown led the way for the Eagles (5-1) with 16 points and Quan Jackson added 13 more in his return from an ankle injury suffered last week, but Georgia Southern was never able to turn the game into the free-flowing and high-scoring contests that it has benefitted from so far this season.

The slower pace was, in part, due to a solid effort from the Buccaneers (6-2), who utilized a big lineup to out-rebound the Eagles on both ends of the floor and prevent Georgia Southern from cranking up its transition game that has been a huge weapon so far this season.

At the same time, an Eagle lineup that saw the return of Jackson and the first minutes of the season from junior forward Simeon Carter may have also played a role in keeping the Eagles from finding their rhythm.

“I like our depth, but that means that we’re having a lot of guys working their way back from injuries and getting everyone involved,” Byington said. “We’re going to be a work in progress for a couple of weeks. We were out of rhythm in spots. We just need to learn what we’re like as a whole team.”

Tray Boyd III led ETSU with 17 points, with Isaiah Tisdale adding 15 and Patrick Good chipping in 13 more.

Neither team led by more than seven points during the game and the lead shifted several times in the middle of the second half.

The Bucs took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Boyd with 4:27 to play.

Brown made a pair of free throws to close within 66-64 with 57 seconds to play. Solid defense by the Eagles appeared to force a few extra steps by Mladen Armus, but no whistle sounded and Armus found Good for a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left that sunk the Eagles’ comeback hopes.

Georgia Southern began Tuesday night as just one of 25 Division I squads that were still undefeated. That lofty title is now gone, but the Eagles still have plenty to prove as they continue a very challenging non-conference schedule.

The Eagles won’t have to worry about Tuesday’s loss for long as travel plans are now in order. Georgia Southern is scheduled to catch a 5 a.m. flight out west as they now look forward to a Thursday night matchup against perennial national power Arizona.

“We want to improve on where we’ve come up short, but we don’t have time to dwell on this loss,” Byington said. “Arizona will be a tough test. East Tennessee will win 20 games and maybe be a tournament team.

“We don’t have a single second to feel sorry for ourselves. The games will keep getting tougher, but we’re going to be battle-tested by the time we get into conference play.”