ULM Loses Heartbreaker at Buzzer to Georgia Southern, 79-78

STATESBORO, Ga. – Quan Jackson buried a 3-pointer from the left wing at the buzzer to give Georgia Southern a 79-78 victory over ULM Thursday (Jan. 10) in Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles erased a 14-point second-half deficit by outscoring the Warhawks, 40-25, over the final 15:30.

The comeback also gave Mark Byington his 100th win in six seasons as head coach at Georgia Southern.

Daishon Smith's pull-up jumper to the right of the lane sparked a 13-4 run, and his steal and layup lifted ULM to a 21-11 lead with 12:35 left in the first half. Georgia Southern scored eight-straight points and pulled to within 21-19 as Tookie Brown's steal resulted in Calvin Wishart's layup with 9:29 to play in the opening half. The Warhawks outscored the Eagles, 10-2, over the next 3:34 and pushed their lead back to 10 at 31-21 on Andre Washington's rebound dunk with 5:35 remaining. ULM extended its lead to 13 at 37-24 on back-to-back 3s from Smith and JD Williams. The Eagles got a putback from Montae Glenn at the first-half horn to cut their deficit to 41-30 at the intermission.

ULM (9-6, 2-1 Sun Belt) got 18 first-half points from Michael Ertel, who made 7-of-10 field-goal attempts including 4-of-6 3-points. As a team, the Warhawks shot 50 percent (15-of-30) from the floor in the opening half, including 8-of-16 3-pointers.

Smith's three-point play gave ULM its largest lead at 53-39 with 15:43 remaining in the second half. Trailing 57-47, Georgia Southern put together a 15-6 run and cut its deficit to one at 63-62 as David-Lee Jones Jr. connected on a line-drive 3-pointer from the left wing with 7:00 on the clock. ULM pushed its lead to 72-67 on Smith's trey from the right corner with 3:43 left. The Eagles answered with an 8-2 spurt and took their first lead of the game at 75-74 on Brown's layup with 1:15 left. Georgia Southern had possession and a chance to extend its lead, but Smith converted a steal into a layup as ULM regained the lead 76-75 with 25 seconds to play. The Eagles tied the score at 76-76 as Wishart hit 1-of-2 free-throw attempts with 12 seconds on the clock. Smith calmly sank both ends of a one-and-one with 4.8 seconds remaining as ULM reclaimed the lead at 78-76. Following a timeout, Brown took the inbounds pass and raced to the middle of the lane before passing the ball to Jackson on the left wing for the game-winning 3.

"What a ballgame!" ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "We knew they'd make a run in the second half in here, and they did. We held them off for as long as we could. We led for almost 39 minutes in the game, then they caught us in the end.

"We went up late after Daishon (Smith) made a great play. He got a steal, got fouled on the drive and made two free throws, but we made a mental mistake defensively by giving up the 3-point line at the end of the game. It's something we had talked about in the timeout. The kid (Quan Jackson) made a good shot, but we weren't even supposed to be giving that up. We wanted to force them to make a tough two. That's what we were trying to do on the final possession.

"This is a tough loss to swallow, and the kids are upset about it," Richard continued. "In conference play, you're going to have these ebbs and flows in games. If you're going to win on the road, you're going to have to make a play late in the game. We needed one more play on the defensive end tonight, and we didn't do it. We've got to learn from this experience, and when we're in that situation again, we don't give up the 3-point line."

Georgia Southern (10-6, 2-1) shot 53 percent (18-of-34) from the field in the second half, including 8-of-15 from 3-point range.

"Once again, we wore down defensively in the second half," Richard said. "They were getting to the basket a little easier than they were in the first half, but we've seen that before.

"I was really disappointed in some of our second-half offense. We struggled because our offense stalled at times. We'd run the offense and move the ball, then we'd just sit. I told them in a timeout that we have to keep going through the whole possession as opposed to stopping and someone trying to make a one-on-one play.

"We also committed too many turnovers in the game," Richard continued. "We had 16 total; eight in each half. Turnovers played a big part in us losing the lead. Too many times on a drive to the basket, a defender would dig and slap the ball away. We also committed an offensive foul trying to post-up. All of those things catch up to you on the road."

Four Eagles scored in double figures, led by Brown who netted 22 points with 16 coming in the second half. Isaiah Crawley produced a double-double with 17 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Georgia Southern also got 12 points from Jackson and 10 from Glenn.

Smith scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to pace the Warhawks. Ertel matched his career high with 22 points while Williams contributed 11 points.

"We've got to find a way to get Travis (Munnings) going," Richard said. "It's just tough to win on the road without him contributing enough offensively. We had seven points tonight, but that's not enough. It puts a lot of pressure on Mike and Daishon (to carrying the scoring load). Travis is struggling, and we're struggling to find him within our offense. We need to find a way to get him going within our offense. It's a big thing for us to have four guys in double figures, instead of two or three."

ULM concludes its Sun Belt road swing at Georgia State on Saturday, Jan. 12, with tipoff set for 1 p.m. ET/noon CT.

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