NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Relaxed and ready to play, Georgia Southern didn’t waste any time making itself at home Wednesday night in the opening round of the Southern Conference basketball tournament.
The sixth-seeded Eagles continued their late season roll, cruising past the 11th-seeded Citadel Bulldogs for a 62-46 victory — Georgia Southern’s fourth in a row. The Eagles (15-15) advance to face No. 3 seed Charleston tonight around 9:30, while the Bulldogs ended their season at 7-23 overall.
“We stressed the idea of just playing loose and having fun,” said Eagle forward Louis Graham, who had a game-high 15 points to lead four Eagles in double figures. “We didn’t want to be uptight, because when you get uptight, you can’t run the offense correctly. We were just out there playing like it was an open gym. That was key.”
Georgia Southern set the tone with a 19-4 first-half run and led by double digits for nearly 26 minutes before The Citadel attempted to make things interesting late. Riding the energy of the home crowd, the Bulldogs cut GSU’s advantage to seven at 49-42 on a Donny McClendon 3 from the left wing with 7:14 to play. The Citadel’s hopes for an upset faded quickly as Jimmy Tobias answered with a fastbreak layup and the Bulldogs missed a pair of free throws and a dunk.
Eagle guard Donte Gennie said the key to staying on top was not panicking and keeping the crowd out of the game.
“When they made that run to cut it to seven — that was a time where we could have laid down — but I thought our guys did a really nice job of fighting back,” Eagle coach Jeff Price said. “We made a couple of baskets and got some stops. They are a really hard team to score against. In no way did I expect an easy game. We knew coming in that this would be a physical, hard-fought game. I was really proud of the way we were able to fight and hold them off.
Gennie added 14 for the Eagles, while Tobias and Matt Fields had 12 apiece. The Bulldogs placed two in double figures, J’Mel Everhart with 13 and Dublin’s Donny McClendon with 10.
Crucial to the Eagles’ success was their ability to contain The Citadel’s leading scorer, senior guard Kevin Hammack, who entered the tournament averaging 25 points a game against the Eagles this year. On Wednesday he finished with just six points, shooting 1-for-15 from the field and 0-for-5 on 3-pointers.
“We were just playing team defense together – everybody helping each other out and helping with penetration,” Gennie said.
The Eagles led 32-20 at the half, and held the Bulldogs to 23.8 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.
“If we make a couple more of those shots, than who knows down the stretch,” Bulldog coach Ed Conroy said. “But I’m very proud of our effort in the second half.”
Georgia Southern is 1-1 against Charleston this year with a 74-65 victory in the regular-season finale last Saturday in Statesboro and a 67-64 loss at Charleston in January. Tonight’s game will be the final one of the day and won’t commence until after 9 p.m.
“There’s obviously nothing we can do about the time,” Price said. “We’ll try to sleep a little bit later and adjust our bodies. I think we all know games with Charleston are highly competitive and have been great games. We’ve been fortunate enough to play very well against them. I know they’ll be a lot of people rooting against us tomorrow – we’ll mentally be ready for that and hopefully answer the challenge.”
Gennie named
All-SoCon
Gennie was named to the All-Southern Conference team Wednesday in a vote by the league’s 11 head coaches. It was the first All-SoCon honor for the senior from Tallahassee, Fla. He was a third-team media pick last season and a preseason selection in 2006.
Gennie finished the regular season fourth in the conference in scoring (16.3 ppg) and in 3-point percentage (42.1) and fifth in 3-pointers per contest (2.66). He is GSU’s active leader in points (1,259), 3-pointers (158), 3-point percentage (40.2%) and steals (145). Gennie’s 3-point percentage ranks third in school history.
UNCG’s Kyle Hines was tabbed the SoCon player of the year, Davidson’s Stephen Curry was the rookie of the year and Bob McKillop of Davidson was named the coach of the year.
Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.
The sixth-seeded Eagles continued their late season roll, cruising past the 11th-seeded Citadel Bulldogs for a 62-46 victory — Georgia Southern’s fourth in a row. The Eagles (15-15) advance to face No. 3 seed Charleston tonight around 9:30, while the Bulldogs ended their season at 7-23 overall.
“We stressed the idea of just playing loose and having fun,” said Eagle forward Louis Graham, who had a game-high 15 points to lead four Eagles in double figures. “We didn’t want to be uptight, because when you get uptight, you can’t run the offense correctly. We were just out there playing like it was an open gym. That was key.”
Georgia Southern set the tone with a 19-4 first-half run and led by double digits for nearly 26 minutes before The Citadel attempted to make things interesting late. Riding the energy of the home crowd, the Bulldogs cut GSU’s advantage to seven at 49-42 on a Donny McClendon 3 from the left wing with 7:14 to play. The Citadel’s hopes for an upset faded quickly as Jimmy Tobias answered with a fastbreak layup and the Bulldogs missed a pair of free throws and a dunk.
Eagle guard Donte Gennie said the key to staying on top was not panicking and keeping the crowd out of the game.
“When they made that run to cut it to seven — that was a time where we could have laid down — but I thought our guys did a really nice job of fighting back,” Eagle coach Jeff Price said. “We made a couple of baskets and got some stops. They are a really hard team to score against. In no way did I expect an easy game. We knew coming in that this would be a physical, hard-fought game. I was really proud of the way we were able to fight and hold them off.
Gennie added 14 for the Eagles, while Tobias and Matt Fields had 12 apiece. The Bulldogs placed two in double figures, J’Mel Everhart with 13 and Dublin’s Donny McClendon with 10.
Crucial to the Eagles’ success was their ability to contain The Citadel’s leading scorer, senior guard Kevin Hammack, who entered the tournament averaging 25 points a game against the Eagles this year. On Wednesday he finished with just six points, shooting 1-for-15 from the field and 0-for-5 on 3-pointers.
“We were just playing team defense together – everybody helping each other out and helping with penetration,” Gennie said.
The Eagles led 32-20 at the half, and held the Bulldogs to 23.8 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.
“If we make a couple more of those shots, than who knows down the stretch,” Bulldog coach Ed Conroy said. “But I’m very proud of our effort in the second half.”
Georgia Southern is 1-1 against Charleston this year with a 74-65 victory in the regular-season finale last Saturday in Statesboro and a 67-64 loss at Charleston in January. Tonight’s game will be the final one of the day and won’t commence until after 9 p.m.
“There’s obviously nothing we can do about the time,” Price said. “We’ll try to sleep a little bit later and adjust our bodies. I think we all know games with Charleston are highly competitive and have been great games. We’ve been fortunate enough to play very well against them. I know they’ll be a lot of people rooting against us tomorrow – we’ll mentally be ready for that and hopefully answer the challenge.”
Gennie named
All-SoCon
Gennie was named to the All-Southern Conference team Wednesday in a vote by the league’s 11 head coaches. It was the first All-SoCon honor for the senior from Tallahassee, Fla. He was a third-team media pick last season and a preseason selection in 2006.
Gennie finished the regular season fourth in the conference in scoring (16.3 ppg) and in 3-point percentage (42.1) and fifth in 3-pointers per contest (2.66). He is GSU’s active leader in points (1,259), 3-pointers (158), 3-point percentage (40.2%) and steals (145). Gennie’s 3-point percentage ranks third in school history.
UNCG’s Kyle Hines was tabbed the SoCon player of the year, Davidson’s Stephen Curry was the rookie of the year and Bob McKillop of Davidson was named the coach of the year.
Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.
