Georgia Southern

Southern Conference Coaches Poll

Press Release — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:33:12 -0700

Southern Conference Coaches Predicted Order of Finish
(Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own teams)

North Division
Team (First Place Votes) Total Votes
UNC Greensboro (10) 60
Appalachian State (1) 47
Western Carolina 42
Chattanooga 35
Elon 26

South Division
Team (First Place Votes) Total Votes
Davidson (10) 60
Georgia Southern 48
College of Charleston (1) 43
Wofford 35
Furman 24
The Citadel 15
First place votes in parentheses.

Preseason Coaches All-SoCon Team
Stephen Curry (Davidson)
Kyle Hines (UNC Greensboro)
Nick Aldridge (Western Carolina)
Louis Graham (Georgia Southern)
Jason Richards (Davidson)
Donte Minter (Appalachian State)
Jermaine Johnson (College of Charleston)
Thomas Sander (Davidson)
Shane Nichols (Wofford)
Drew Gibson (Wofford)

Davidson's Stephen Curry was voted preseason Player of the Year.

Georgia Southern 83 - Wofford 78

Press Release — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 08:12:24 -0800

STATESBORO, Ga. --- Senior Donte Gennie scored a career high 28 points to help Georgia Southern defeat Wofford 83-78 Monday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.

GSU evens its Southern Conference record at 2-2 after an 0-2 start and is now 9-6 overall. Wofford falls to 5-11 and 0-5.

“You do what you have to do to win,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I’ve never had another team force me to play five guards and they literally forced me to do that. They spread us out and were driving on our post players and we were fouling - they’re just a great shooting team. We got stops when we had to - our defense isn’t where it needs to be - but our effort was good.”

GSU placed five players in double-figures: Gennie, junior Dwayne Foreman had 14, junior Louis Graham and senior Jimmy Tobias each had 11 and senior Diogo Salazar recorded a career-high 10 off the bench.

The Terriers were led by Eric Marshall who had a career-best 33 points, shooting 11-for-14 from the field (3-for-3 from 3-point land) and 8-for-8 from the foul line. Shane Nichols poured in 21 and Drew Gibson had 13.

Georgia Southern was slow out of the gate, missing its first three shots
with two turnovers which helped enable the Terriers to jump out to a 6-0 lead.

It was the Marshall and Nichols show early on for Wofford as the combo started 7-for-7 from the floor, including 3-for-3 from behind the arc.

The Eagles led for the first time, 18-16, at the 12:51 mark, but not for long. Nichols reclaimed the lead with a trifecta and held the advantage for another six minutes.

The game went back-and-forth until GSU took control with a 9-0 run, capped off with a trey from Gennie, to go up 41-34 with 2:22 to go in the half.

Gennie came through again with a fall-down triple from the left corner at the buzzer and Georgia Southern went into halftime with the momentum and a 49-40 lead.

Gennie had 19 of his 28 points in the first 20 minutes, the most by a GSU player in a half this season.

The opening moments of the second period belonged to Wofford thanks to an 8-0 rally, but the Terriers were unable to grab a hold of the contest. Wofford pulled even (58-58) at the 12:10 mark and kept Georgia Southern in reach.

A Marshall jumper cut the deficit to 70-69 with 6:08 left, but seven straight points gave GSU the cushion it needed. Wofford would get to within three with just over a minute left, but no closer.

Georgia Southern dominated the glass, outrebounding the Terriers 47-28, led by Graham’s 12. He notched his seventh double-double of the season.

“Our rebounding was really good,” said Price. “We’ve rebounded well in the last two games, averaging 15 offensive rebounds and I’ve been really pleased with that.”

Georgia Southern 61 - Mercer 59

Press Release — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 07:18:56 -0800

MACON, Ga. --- Junior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and Georgia Southern won at Mercer for the first time since 2000, holding on for a 61-59 victory over Mercer Monday evening at the University Center.

Graham notched his second double-double of the season by adding a career-high 17 rebounds. He also set new personal-bests with three assists and four steals, and had three blocks.

He was joined in double figures by senior Donte Gennie (Tallahassee, Fla.) who totaled 16 points. Junior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) added a game-high eight assists.

The Eagles tallied 15 steals as a team and forced 20 turnovers.

Mercer’s James Florence led all scorers with 19 points.

“Every time we come over here it’s (close),” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “The game’s important to both teams but they always get up to play us.”

Tied 29-29 at the half, GSU controlled the early going in the second half with a 10-4 run thanks to six from Graham and four from senior Jimmy Tobias (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.).

The Eagles’ largest lead after that point was only five, on one occasion. Mercer battled back and took the lead with 6:29 remaining after four straight from Brian Pfoal.

A subsequent 1:32 scoreless drought by both teams was broken by a ‘3’ from Gennie and a lay-in from Graham put GSU up by four, 55-51, with 3:56 remaining.

Mercer answered with baskets by Florence to knot the score again but two Graham lay-ups sandwiched around a Mercer free throw gave the Eagles a three-point lead.

The game was tied for the final time on a trey by Mercer’s Ross Alacqua with 58 seconds left. Both teams had a chance to take the lead on their next possession, but a miss by Florence gave Georgia Southern the ball with 16 seconds left. Gennie converted a tough shot with 14 seconds on the clock and a ‘3’ by Florence at the buzzer failed to draw rim.

“It was a close game but I’m proud of our guys for finding a way to win a defensive-type game,” said Price. “I left our upperclassmen in the last four minutes and said ‘It’s your game to win’ and we did.”

Graham and Gennie combined to score the team’s final 13 points of the contest, spanning the last 7:19. Prior to Gennie’s game-winning shot, Graham hit three-straight shots.

“I thought we had to get the ball inside because we were shooting so poorly and I thought Louis came up huge,” Price added. “He made some big baskets and some huge rebounds. We have to get it done in there if we’re not shooting from the perimeter, but it is a team thing and we have to find a way to make shots. We were getting open but we just weren’t knocking them down.”

Georgia Southern dominated the first four minutes and the last four minutes of the first half, but in between it was all Mercer.

The Eagles jumped out to a 9-2 lead behind four points from junior Ryan Hynes (Paso Robles, Calif.) and a ‘3’ from Gennie. Hynes started and finished the run with a lay-up.

The Bears took over from there, rallying with seven straight points to tie the contest, then following two Tobias free throws, reeled off nine more points for a 17-11 lead.

Lay-ups from Gennie and Graham cut the deficit to two, but a trifecta by Alacqua and a jumper from Shaddean Aaron gave the Bears their biggest lead of the game, 25-15.

GSU went to work on Mercer’s nine-point advantage (26-17), starting with a Gennie 3-pointer, then a thunderous dunk from sophomore Anthony Marshall (Lake Worth, Fla.) off an alley-oop pass from the hands of Foreman.

Mercer answered with a free throw, but a 7-0 run put the Eagles back on top, 29-27. Freshman Antoine Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) capped the rally with a rainbow ‘3’ from the right-wing.

“We have to find a way to score better and we did it in the first half out of our defense,” said Price. “We started pressing and the press really helped us get going offensively and get some easy baskets. We’re just missing so many open shots and that’s very unlike our team. We’ve always been a high-powered offensive team and we’re not making shots.”

The Eagles return to action Saturday, completing the home-and-home series with a road contest at Winston-Salem State. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m.

- GSU -

Duke 72 - Georgia Southern 48

Press Release — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:51:04 -0800

DURHAM, NC - In a tale of two halves, No. 11 Duke outscored Georgia Southern 34-16 in the second half and overcame a six-point, first-half deficit to win 72-48 Monday evening in the CBE Classic at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Georgia Southern (1-1) controlled play for most of the first half. Senior Donte Gennie started the scoring with a jumper in the opening minute and junior Louis Graham added a basket on GSU’s next trip down the floor for an early 4-0 advantage.

Junior Diogo Salazar gave the Eagles their biggest lead of the game, six, to that point with a 3-pointer at the 13:14 mark, setting the score at 15-9. After three Duke free throws, Foreman responded with a trey to double the lead again.

Foreman’s field goal was the team’s last over a four and a half minute stretch and the Blue Devils took advantage. Gerald Henderson cut the margin to two points (18-16) and after a GSU turnover, Josh McRoberts’ second-chance lay-up with 7:47 left in the half tied the game for the first time since the opening tip-off.

The two teams traded the lead back-and-forth over the next seven minutes and neither squad led by more than a point. McRoberts hit four free throws in the final minute and the pendulum swung in favor of Duke when DeMarcus Nelson’s trifecta at the buzzer sent the Blue Devils into the break with their largest lead, 38-32.

Duke continued the momentum after intermission. Dunks by Nelson and McRoberts in the first minute put Duke up 42-32 but buckets by Graham and Foreman brought the Eagles back to within six points.

The Devils’ Greg Paulus answered immediately with a lay-up but shortly after, Foreman’s 16th point of the game made the score 44-38. From there, Duke took over as back-to-back dunks by Lance Thomas began a 9-0 run and the lead ballooned to 15, 53-38. Gennie finally stopped the bleeding with a jumper to snap the 4:30 drought.

Duke led by no fewer than 14 the rest of the way.

“I thought we played hard, for the most part,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I’m very disappointed in the final margin. I don’t think the final score is indicative of the game. This is a place where you have to have tremendous poise. And I thought for a spell in the second half we lost our poise and got mentally weak. I thought it really affected the game and allowed them to go on a run.”

The teams were almost even from the floor in the first half with Duke holding a slight advantage, 41.7 percent to 41.4 percent. But the second half was a different story as the Blue Devils hit 58.3 percent from the field and held the Eagles to 21.2 percent.

“Our defense wasn’t nearly as good in the second half,” Price added, “and their defense was a heck of a lot better.”

Free throws helped tell the story as Duke went 22-of-32 from the line to Georgia Southern’s 6-of-14. In the first half, the Blue Devils hit 17-of-25 from the stripe while the Eagles went just 5-for-6.

“It’s hard to overcome the discrepancy at the line in a place like this,” said Price, “but with that said, we missed a lot of free throws. We missed six in a row at one point in the second half. We like to press, but you can’t get into the press if you don’t make your free throws.”

“We played a really good team tonight,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "They were really prepared. The two games we’ve played against were against really well-coached basketball teams. You could tell why Georgia Southern has won the (South Division three of the last five years). They really execute well and their kids are unselfish and they have good ball handlers. It’s tough to pressure them. I don’t think we had as much energy as we had yesterday but I think a lot of that had to do with the way Georgia Southern played. They take the energy out of you.”

Foreman finished with a game-high 18 points, tying his career high. He went 7-for-13 from the floor, 2-for-5 from 3-point land, and added five rebounds and three assists.

Gennie, who tallied a career-high 26 points Sunday night vs. UC Davis, was held to four points on 2-for-15 shooting, but pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Nelson notched a double-double with 16 points and 10 boards. He led a group of four Duke players in double-figures.

- From GSU Media Relations -

Georgia Southern Signs Willie Powers

Press Release — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:10:21 -0800

STATESBORO, Ga. – Head Coach Jeff Price announced the signing of two-time Gainesville Sun Player of the Year Willie Powers to the 2007-08 Georgia Southern men’s basketball team Wednesday afternoon.

Powers, a 6-2, 180 senior guard at P.K. Yonge High School in Gainesville, Fla., averaged 17.9 points per game last season for Coach Mark Grisseck’s squad and shot 82.3 percent from the line. He averaged 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game and shot 46.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Along with being named Gainesville Sun Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, Powers was named FACA North Central Florida Player of the Year and was named Second Team All-State for Class 3A.

“Willie is a very talented guard from a highly successful high school program,” said Price. “He should follow in the path of the other impact guards we’ve had at GSU over the past seven years.”

Powers attends the same high school as former Eagle Terry Williams (2001-05), and as a sophomore, posted 14.4 points per game, collected 4.4 rebounds per contest and managed 3.1 assists per outing. He shot 46.8 percent from 3-point land and 77.8 percent from the line. Powers was named First Team All-State for Class 2A and First Team FACA All-North Central Florida for his sophomore season.

- GSU -

Southern Conference Preview

CHN — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:10:27 -0800

Conference Previews | Top 144 | 06-07 Preview Home

Southern Preview

Conference Rank: 20th

Conference Page

All-Conference

Player of the Year - Kyle Hines, UNCG, F

DJ Thompson, Appalachian St, G

Ricky Hickman, UNCG, G

Louis Graham, Georgia Southern, F

Jermaine Johnson, Charleston, F

Nat'l	Team (Click for Preview)	Conf	Tourney
122	Charleston	1	NCAA
146	Georgia Southern	2
155	UNC Greensboro	3
174	Furman	4
188	Appalachian St	5
206	Davidson	6
236	Elon	7
245	Chattanooga	8
271	Wofford	9
301	Western Carolina	10
327	Citadel	11

Head Coach Q&A's

Mike Dement - UNCG

Other Preseason Articles

SoCo Media Poll & All-Conference