Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
6-4
Georgia State
6-6
Men's Hoops Drops Heartbreaker at Georgia State
12/19/2009 6:40:55 PM | Men's Basketball
Eagles battle to the end in one-point loss
Box score.
ATLANTA, Ga. (EMUEagles.com) — The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team saw a strong second-half rally fall just short in a 66-65 heartbreaking loss to Georgia State University here Saturday, Dec. 19, afternoon in a non-conference battle in the GSU Sports Arena.
The Eagles were able to build two seven-point leads late in the game, but the Panthers' Trae Goldston made three consecutive triples to trim EMU's lead to one, 58-57, with under five minutes left. Goldston would add another big three to give the home squad a two-point lead, 62-60, with under three minutes to play.
EMU sophomore guard Antonio Green (Inkster, Mich.-Dearborn Heights Robichaud) would then tie the game at 62-all on two free throws, but the Panthers' Marcus Johnson connected on a bucket for a 64-62 Georgia State lead.
The home squad then fouled Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) with 35 seconds left. Bowdry, who was a perfect 10-of-10 at the line to that point, made the first charity toss but missed the second to cut the lead to one, 64-63.
Eastern was then forced to foul and Georgia State's Joe Dukes hit two free throws for a 66-63 lead. Eastern had several three-point field goal trys fall short and Bowdry made a putback basket with two seconds left to make it a one-point lead. The Eagles could not get possession after that, however, and fell by the one point, 66-65.
Eastern, now 6-4 on the year, was once again led by Bowdry who recorded the 13th double-double of his career and the sixth this season with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Carlos Medlock (Detroit, Mich.-Murray Wright) tallied 18 while freshman center Matt Balkema (Warren, Mich.-Cousino) turned in career bests with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Georgia State, now 6-6 on the year, was led by Goldston who had 22 points, including 5-of-8 from beyond the three-point arc. Dukes added 14, and Trey Hampton added 11.
Balkema jump-started the Eagles with a basket to start the game and the two teams traded points through the first three minutes. The home team then went on to build up a 10-point lead, 24-14, with six minutes left before the Eagles began to chip away at the Panthers' lead.
Bowdry started the comeback with two free throws to cut it to eight, 24-16, and he would score the final six points of the half to pull the Eagles within four, 30-26, at intermission.
Bowdry scored 10 points with six rebounds in the first 20 minutes while Balkema scored seven points with three boards in the first half.
The Eagles connected on 10-of-25 field goals in the first half for 40 percent while the Panthers shot 41 percent, making 12-of-29 shots.
Eastern stormed out of the lockerroom to start the second half and raced to a 36-32 lead, out-scoring Georgia State 10-2 in the early going with Medlock scoring six of those points.
The home team fought back, however, scoring five unanswered points to take a 37-36 lead with 15:40 left in the game.
Both teams came up with offensive spurts over the next several minutes before gave the Eagles a four-point lead, 49-45, with 11:19 remaining in the game on a big three-point field goal before the flurry by both teams late in the contest.
The Eagles will get right back into action Tuesday, Dec. 22, in a 7 p.m. home game against Samford University in the Convocation Center.
