Men's Basketball Drops Heartbreaker to Georgia Southern

BOONE, N.C. -- The Appalachian State men's basketball team dropped a 60-59 decision at home to Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon.

Junior Ronshad Shabazz (Raleigh, N.C./Huntington Prep) paced the Mountaineers (8-11, 3-3 SBC) with 17 points and a season-high tying five rebounds. Freshman Justin Forrest (Decatur, Ga./Greenforest McCalep Christian Academy) also reached double figures, finishing with 10 points.

Sophomore Isaac Johnson (Charlotte, N.C./Providence Day) had nine points on 4-of-5 (80.0 percent) shooting and 11 rebounds. He has now pulled down 10 or more rebounds in back-to-back games.

Overall, the Apps pulled down 50 rebounds in the game, getting a season-high nine boards from senior Craig Hinton (Winston-Salem, N.C.), a season-high tying seven from junior Tyrell Johnson (Atlanta, Ga./Stephenson) and five from senior Griffin Kinney (Delaware, Ohio/Fork Union Military Academy) and junior Jake Wilson (Raleigh, N.C./Millbrook). Of the Apps 50 rebounds, 20 came on the offensive glass, marking the third time this season the Mountaineers have registered at least 20 offensive rebounds in a game.

Tookie Brown had a game-high 21 points for the Eagles (14-5, 5-1 SBC), with Mike Hughes adding 12 points.

The Mountaineers opened the game strong, holding the Eagles scoreless for the first 4:06 and building an early 7-0 lead. Georgia Southern came right back with nine of the next 11 points to tie the score at 9-9 in the early going.
 
With the score tied at 11-11, the Black and Gold used a 7-0 run to push their lead to 18-11 with 8:10 left in the first half. App State held the lead for the remainder of the half and took a 25-21 lead into the intermission.
 
In the second half, the Black and Gold would stretch their lead to 12 points at 46-34. The Eagles would chip away at the lead and used a 7-0 spurt to jump in front 52-51 with 5:57 to play in the game.
 
The teams would see the lead change hand six times over the next four minutes, before the Eagles were able to open a 60-57 edge with 56 seconds to play.
 
Isaac Johnson would answer with a basket on App State's next possession to bring the Mountaineers within one with 39 seconds remaining.

After Appalachian forced the Eagles into a tough three, Forrest pulled down the rebound with nine seconds left and found Shabazz, who missed a three-pointer from the right wing. Forrest grabbed the rebound but was unable to get a shot off, giving Georgia Southern the victory.

The Black and Gold finished 19-of-60 (31.7 percent) from the field, while the Eagles went 24-of-58 (41.4 percent).

App State will head to Alabama next week, taking on Troy on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. and South Alabama on January 20 at 4:05 p.m.