Hewitt's 33 leads Georgia Southern over South Florida 68-63
TAMPA, Fla. -- Jelani Hewitt tied his season high with 33 points on Monday night and Georgia Southern beat South Florida for the first time in program history 68-63.
With the shot clock nearly expired, Hewitt hit a step-back 3-pointer to put Georgia Southern (5-2) up 66-60 with 1:20 left.
The Eagles led by 11 with 6:34 left in the game, but South Florida (5-4) rallied with a 16-8 run to get within 63-60 on Chris Perry's layup at the 1:52 mark.
Georgia Southern led 32-28 at halftime and opened the second with 12 straight. Hewitt finished 5 of 8 from 3-point range and Trent Wiedeman added 17 points for Georgia Southern, which had lost all four of its previous meetings with the Bulls.
Perry had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead USF, Dinero Mercurius scored 13 and Nehemias Morillo added 11. The Bulls were 2 of 20 from 3.
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Georgia Tech beats Appalachian State 70-57
ATLANTA -- Georgia Tech showed again on Monday night that it can rely on captain Marcus Georges-Hunt when it matters most.
Georges-Hunt bounced back from a pair of subpar games to score 15 points, all in the first half, and lead the Yellow Jackets to a 70-57 win over Appalachian State.
The win came eight days after Georgia Tech had been upset on its home court by South Carolina Upstate.
Georges-Hunt had been held to single-digits the last two games, but helped the Yellow Jackets to a 36-25 halftime lead. He was 4 of 10 from the field and 7 of 9 from the line.
"For that 11 or 12 minutes of the first half, Marcus was terrific," Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory said. "He did some really good things."
With Georges-Hunt hampered by foul trouble in the second half, DeMarco Cox and Robert Sampson took over inside. Cox scored seven of his 13 points and Sampson scored six of his 10 after halftime. Sampson finished with eight rebounds.
"I was trying to be aggressive," Georges-Hunt said. "Knowing a lot of the time the defense is keying on me, I tried to be as aggressive as possible to open up things for my teammates."
Georgia Tech (7-2) also got 12 points from Tadric Jackson.
Appalachian State (3-4) was led by Chris Burgess, who scored 15 points and Dustin Clarke, who added 13 and nine rebounds.
Appalachian State got off to a quick start and had an 11-6 lead with 16:20 left on a layup by Tommy Spagnolo. Georgia Tech responded with a 9-0 run, tying the game at 11-11 on a pair of free throws Jackson and taking the lead on a dunk by Sampson. The Yellow Jackets stretched the lead to 17-11, only to have the Mountaineers score six straight and knot the game at 17 on a short jumper by Burgess.
That's when Georgia Tech began to assert itself in the paint. Cox made a short jumper and Georges-Hunt had eight points, including six free throws drawn while driving to the basket, to spark a 16-6 stretch that gave the Yellow Jackets a 33-23 lead.
"We struggled to get into a flow," Appalachian State coach Jim Fox said. "I think that was a credit to them and the adjustments they made early."
Appalachian State cut the lead to seven points early in the second half on a bucket by Spagnolo with 18:37 left. Georgia Tech quickly turned aside any threat by running plays inside and a power move by Cox with 11:22 remaining pushed the lead to 55-40.
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TIP-INS
Appalachian State: The Mountaineers' unwillingness to drive to the basket kept them off the free throw line. They did not shoot a free throw in the first half and only shot eight for the game -- but made them all. Their previous season low was 16 attempts.
Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets were more aggressive on offense and it paid off. Georgia Tech went to the line only 20 times in its loss to USC Upstate, but shot 29 free throws Monday, making 18. It was the second-most points scored from the line this season.
WHAT'S NEXT:
Georgia Tech hosts Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Appalachian State visits Charlotte on Thursday.
STAT LINE
Appalachian State defeated Virginia Tech earlier this year by outrebounding the Hokies 42-27. The Mountaineers were outrebounded 35-26 by Georgia Tech and had only three offensive rebounds. They had 19 offensive rebounds against Virginia Tech. "Georgia Tech did a good job keeping us off the glass," Fox said.
SMART STARTS
Georgia Tech is 4-0 in the team's first game following fall semester exams under Gregory.
MILESTONE
The win was the 50th for Gregory as the Yellow Jackets head coach. His career record is 222-148 in 12 seasons.
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Austin Peay holds on to beat Troy 73-70
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- Ed Dyson scored five of his 15 points in the final 2:50 and Jeremy Purvis nailed a 3-point jumper with 1:13 left to give Austin Peay a 73-70 victory over Troy on Monday night.
Purvis made 4 of 7 from beyond the arc for 13 points, Khalil Davis added 12 and Chris Horton chipped in 11 for Austin Peay (3-7).
The Governors held a 55-43 lead with 9:05 left in the game when John Walton III made a 3-pointer to start an 11-2 run and closed the gap to 57-54 with 5:37 left. The Trojans switched to a zone defense that stymied the Governors until Josh Robinson made two free throws, Dyson and Chris Horton made a layup apiece and Purvis hit a trey for a 69-61 lead.
Kelton Ford and Musa Abdul-Aleem had 15 apiece to lead the Trojans (4-4). Troy just missed the program's 1000th win.
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Davis leads Pepperdine past South Alabama 78-68
MALIBU, Calif. -- Stacy Davis score 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Pepperdine to a 78-68 win over South Alabama in the Gotham Classic on Monday night.
Davis has scored in double figures in 18-consecutive games.
South Alabama (2-5) led 31-22 after Ken Williams made a jumper with 4:52 left in the first half, but the Waves scored 14 of the next 16, including a dunk by Jett Raines 27 seconds into the second half, to take a 36-33 lead.
After a jumper by Dionte Ferguson and two free throws by John Brown made it 37-33 about a minute later, Atif Russell hit a 3 which sparked a 17-0 Pepperdine run. Davis scored eight points during that stretch and Pepperdine led 53-37 with 12:35 to play.
A 13-2 run by Jaguars got them back in striking distance and a later 6-0 spurt made it 69-64 with 2:57 to play, but they would get no closer.