Georgia Southern rocks Georgia St 88-65 in Sun Belt opener (Dec 31, 2016)
STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) Tookie Brown scored 29 points, Ike Smith had 22 and Georgia Southern knocked down seven-straight 3-pointers early in the second half to roll to an 88-65 win over Georgia State in the Sun Belt Conference opener on Saturday.
Brown hit 6 of 7 shots and scored 15 points as the Eagles (8-6) took a 36-29 lead at the half. Jake Allsmiller opened the second half with a pair of 3s and Smith followed with two more pushing the lead to 19 before the Panthers had two free throws. Then it was Mike Hughes with back-to-back 3s and Brown had another as the run reached 31-8 and the lead was 67-37 with 12:30 to play.
Georgia Southern made 8 of 16 behind the arc in the second half when it shot 59 percent and hit 16 of 23 free throws. The Eagles also got 23 points off 22 turnovers.
Georgia State (7-6) shot 33 percent Jeremy Hollowell had 21 points, his sixth time reaching 20 this season, and Jordan Session had a career-high 13 rebounds as the Panthers had a 51-31 advantage on the boards.
