A 12-0 run midway through the second half nearly brought Georgia Southern men's basketball (17-16, 8-10 SBC) ahead of Georgia State (14-18, 8-10), but the Eagles couldn't get the shots to fall after, ending the season with an 80-71 loss in Pensacola.
"Tonight was obviously a tough one, we didn't play well in the first half, and it's even tougher when your season comes to an end," Bice-Peace head coach Charlie Henry said. "We had a great group this year, and I think that strong effort to battle back was reflective of the locker room we had. We didn't want to quit, and that showed."
The teams battled early on in the game. Bradley Douglas converted a corner three right out of the under-16 to cut the Panthers' lead to 10-9.
After a Collin Kuhl and-one layup to take a 16-14 lead, the Eagles struggled to convert from then on out. Adante' Holiman's steal and score at 8:16 to make it a 24-23 deficit was the final field goal of the half for the blue & white - going 0-for-the-next-15 from the field.
Holiman nailed 2-of-3 free throws to salvage an eight-point deficit at 36-28 after one. The Eagles made just 26.4 percent of their attempts in the opening frame.
With about 15 minutes left in the second half, as he did so often all season for the Eagles, Holiman began to take over. His drive and score at 13:34 brought GS back within 10 after the Panther lead had ballooned as much as 15.
Eren Banks again cut it back to ten after a stretch where the Panthers pushed it back to 15. The aforementioned 12-0 run - started by a Holiman three - brought the game to a 63-62 score after Nakavieon White went 1-2 from the line.
White hit a three at 3:18 to bring it back to two, but the Panthers had an answer. Another layup by White made it 73-71, but the Eagles did not score again for the remainder of the game and the Panthers emerged victorious 80-71.
Holiman was a big part of the comeback with a 25-point outing, his 11th 20-point effort, finishing the season with the 11th-most threes (81) in single-season program history, knocking out Fernando Daniel's 79 in 1998-99. He ended his tremendous all-conference season averaging 16.9 points per game.
"It's been a great time for me, especially with this team coming together towards the end," he said. "These are my guys, and the culture [Coach Henry] is building is about being together, and I feel like we did that."
Eugene Brown III finished his 129-game collegiate career with six points in his final contest. After coming to Georgia Southern last year and battling through injuries, Brown III has been a part of the building process.
"Last year with Coach Henry, we were trying to establish the culture, and trying to set the foundation," he said. "Going through these two years, this program is definitely on the right path. It's set in stone, and now, we're building on it. The culture is just one of grit, determination, toughness, and if you buy into it, it's a solid system."
White continued his sensational stretch run with another 15-point effort, and Tyson Brown rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 and 7 rebounds. Brown qualified for and broke the single-season field-goal percentage record (min. 100 att.) tonight with a 5-8 effort, ending his senior year with a .634 (102-161) mark, breaking Michael Curry's long-standing program record of .621 set in 1989-90.
Charlie Henry and the Eagles will turn attention to next season.
