Monday, November 13
 
Georgia Southern 77, CSU Bakersfield 53
STATESBORO, Ga. - Tookie Brown and Ike Smith combined for 45 points, and Georgia Southern backed up its season opening win at Wake Forest with a convincing 77-53 men's basketball victory over CSU Bakersfield Monday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
 
Brown scored 24 and missed just two shots on the night as the junior went 7-of-8 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line for the Eagles (2-0). Smith netted 21 points and added seven rebounds, and Montae Glenn tallied nine points and seven boards.
 
Fallou Ndoye tallied 13 points and six rebounds to lead CSU Bakersfield (1-1). Damiyne Durham added 12 points and six boards, and Rickey Holden chipped in nine points, six rebounds and five assists.
 
The first meeting between the schools serves as the front end of a home-and-home series this season. Georgia Southern returns the game Dec. 16.

Glenn scored five points, and Smith added a pair of triples as GS opened the contest with a 15-3 run. The Eagles held the Roadrunners to 1-of-7 from the field to start the game, and CSU Bakersfield made just three of its first 16 shots. The Eagles never led by less than six points for the rest of the game, and the margin grew to 17 at the break.
 
Hamilton scooped in a nifty layup and Brown stole a pass and was fouled trying a triple with 1.1 on the clock. The junior hit all three from the charity stripe for a 36-19 halftime cushion. The margin grew to as many as 29 points on a Glenn putback dunk with 7:28 left in the game. The Eagles forced 18 turnovers and scored 20 off the miscues.
 
South Alabama 71, Mobile 49
MOBILE, Ala. - The University of South Alabama men's basketball team started the second half on a 21-6 run and cruised to a 71-49 victory against Mobile Monday night at the Mitchell Center.
 
Sophomore Jordan Andrews paced all scorers with 18 points, and sophomore Josh Ajayi added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
After a sluggish first half, the Jaguars went 6 for 8 from the floor with five assists after halftime to open up a 19-point advantage. Mobile closed to within 13 in the last five minutes, but South Alabama ended the game on a 12-3 burst.
 
The Jaguars opened up a 10-point lead with 6:33 left in the opening half but the Rams scored the next seven points and USA went into intermission up 29-25.
 
South Alabama scored on its first three possessions of the second half, getting a layup from graduate student Rozelle Nix, a 3-pointer from Ajayi and two free throws from Andrews, to take its largest lead of the game, 36-25.
 
The Rams got a layup on their next trip down the floor, but the Jags scored 10 of the game's next 12 points, with Andrews contributing eight, to go up 46-29 less than five minutes into the second half.
Mobile went on an 11-2 run over a five-minute span to cut the deficit to 13, getting seven consecutive points from Tyler Williams, and forcing four turnovers.
 
Nick Davis got a dunk on the Jags' next possession, and scored six of South Alabama's next 10 points to push the lead back up to 20.
 
South Alabama shot 59.1 percent from the floor in the second half while holding Mobile to 26.7 percent
Williams, who came off the bench, shared team-high honors in points with JaBarie Escoffery with 12
Davis tied his career high with 13 points and added six rebounds and a personal-best four blocks.
 
Rodrick Sikes tallied 12 points in a reserve role and tallied two blocks, while Trhae Mitchell tied his career high of seven rebounds and dished out a career-best six assists.
 
Arkansas State 83, Abilene Christian 69
JONESBORO, Ark. - Making its regular-season home debut under first-year head coach Mike Balado, the Arkansas State men’s basketball team saw four players score in double figures as it claimed an 83-69 victory over Abilene Christian Monday night at First National Bank Arena.
 
The Red Wolves evened their record to 1-1, winning their home opener for the third consecutive year to bring their all-time record in such games at First National Bank Arena to 25-6.  ACU, which also had four players score in double digits, saw its record move to 1-1 as well.
 
Senior guard Deven Simms came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points, while junior guard Ty Cockfield added 18 and senior forward Tamas Bruce and junior guard Grantham Gillard each finished with 13.
 
The Red Wolves posted a final shooting percentage of 56 percent to the Wildcats .510 percentage.  A-State also claimed a 33-21 advantage on the boards and made 50 percent of its three pointers (7-of-14).  ACU was limited to just a 17.6 three-point percentage, making 3-of-17 attempts.
 
Bruce was responsible for a team-high eight rebounds and Simms followed with seven.  Abilene Christian was led by guard Jaylen Franklin with 16 points, while Jaren Lewis added 15, Tevin Foster 14 and Hayden Howell 11.
 
A-State, which trailed only once by a 2-0 margin at the start of the game, shot 56 percent in the first half and was able to build a double-figure advantage at 16-6 eight minutes into the contest.  Leading 8-6 at the 15:53 mark, the Red Wolves went on a 24-9 run over the next 10 minutes to take their largest advantage of the half at 32-15.
 
ACU was able to cut its deficit back to nine points with 2:14 remaining before halftime, but A-State scored eight of the last nine to make the score 40-25 at the break.
 
A-State shot 56 percent for both the first and second half, while limiting ACU to a .333 percentage over the opening 20 minutes of action.  Simms scored 15 of his 22 points to fuel A-State’s first-half performance, which also saw the squad out-rebound the Wildcats 21-10.

ACU, which shot 68 percent in the second half, made eight of its first 10 field goal attempts coming out of the locker room as it was able to pull within 49-44 with 13:10 remaining.  Still leading by just six points less than a minute later, Arkansas State went on a 9-0 run that included five points from Simms and four by Bruce to push its advantage back to 15 at the 9:01 mark.
 
ACU wasn’t able to get closer than 10 the rest of the way, while A-State’s lead swelled to as much as 20 points on two different occasions.
 
Hawai’i 72, Troy 67
HONOLULU, Hawai'i – Jordon Varnado hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left in regulation to cap a 15-point comeback, but the momentum didn’t carry into overtime as Troy fell 72-67 to Hawai’i in the championship game of the Rainbow Classic.
 
A jumper by Gibson Johnson gave the Rainbow Warriors a 54-39 advantage with 10:45 left, but that was as high as the lead would get. After scoring just three points in the first half, Wesley Person led the comeback effort with his 3-point shooting.
 
The senior hit two 3-pointers in a span of 40 seconds to cut the lead back down to nine with 5:37 on the clock. After trading baskets, Troy put up a stellar defensive effort as Hawai’I scored just one point in the final 5:07 of regulation.
 
In a game dictated by fouls—Troy had 26 compared to Hawai’is 16—it took four free throws by Person and a jumper by Alex Hicks to cut the lead to three. Drew Buggs missed one-of-two free throws with 20 seconds remaining to give Troy the chance to tie.
 
Trailing 62-59, Troy scrambled to set up the game-tying 3-point attempt but Hawai’I double-teamed Person. Eventually, the ball came to the top of the key where Varnado launched a high-arcing shot that tied the game and silenced the crowd.
 
The first three minutes of overtime were quiet as both teams tried to get back into rhythm in the extra frame. Free throws again dictated the story as the final eight points of the game were scored from the charity stripe.
 
Down 70-67 with 24 seconds left, Person got a steal and appeared to have a lane for a quick basket, but he was stripped to give possession back to Hawai’i. Sheriff Drammeh then proceeded to ice the game on two free throws.