Once again, the Elon Phoenix men's basketball team let a lead slip by not hitting shots.

The Phoenix held a 41-27 lead with 16:08 to play in the second half. Sophomore guard Jack Isenbarger hit a big three to make the difference 14 points, and the crowd was fired up.

Then the shots stopped falling.

Elon (7-6, 2-1 Southern Conference) did not make a field goal for 7:46 in the middle of the second half and fell to the Georgia Southern University Eagles 69-63 at Alumni Gym Thursday night. The loss marked the fourth-straight loss for the Phoenix and ended their season-opening SoCon winning streak at two and home winning streak at five.

"This ain't no bad team that we beat on the road tonight," Georgia Southern head coach Charlton Young said. "(Elon is) well-coached, very organized. I felt like our pressure wore them down."

The Eagles' (5-8, 3-0 SoCon) defensive pressure, often full-court after a basket and in-your-face on inbounds passes, led to several Elon turnovers, including a couple five-second violation calls.

"Georgia Southern did a good job, but we missed open shots, they defended us well and we've gotta take better shots, particularly in tough times," Elon head coach Matt Matheny said. "We've had too many scoring droughts. What we need to learn is a couple things. We need to get the right guys the right shots during tough times."

The Phoenix shot just 36% from the field for the game. The Eagles shot 23.5% in the first half, but hit 59.3% of their shots in the second half.

"We didn't get the stops we needed to," Isenbarger, who led the Phoenix with 17 points off the bench, said. "It all starts on the defensive end of things. I think we need to pick it up in both areas, defensively especially. We got some good looks, but we weren't knocking them down. And that's where you need to be good defensively."

Freshman guard Austin Hamilton, whose 12 second-half points kept the Phoenix in the game, was disappointed following the loss.

"I wasn't expecting to let that one slip away," he said. "It starts on the defensive end. When we play good D, that's what brings our offense in. Unfortunately, we didn't get the stops we needed towards the end of the game. We were getting good shots, they just weren't falling. It's just something we gotta learn from, something to get better from."

Georgia Southern was led by sophomore guard Eric Ferguson, who had a game-high 21 points and 14 rebounds. Redshirt senior guard Willie Powers III added 16 points while senior guard Ben Drayton III had 17 points and four assists.

"We're primarily a young team," Young said. "We're athletic, we're deep. We have a chance to have a special year."

Elon sophomore forward Lucas Troutman added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Phoenix. Senior guard Drew Spradlin added nine points. Sophomore forward Ryley Beaumont led Elon with 11 rebounds, but was 0-8 from the field.

"I never felt like we had the game won," Matheny said. "It was sort of a gradual wave. They didn't go on a huge run, but the lead was slipping away. I thought we got some pretty good looks during that stretch. The credit goes to Georgia Southern. They hung in."

Despite the "disappointing" loss, Matheny said that he was encouraged by the effort.

"I thought we played about as well as we've played all year," he said. "We played pretty well in the first half. We defended really well. We're a better team than we were a week ago, but unfortunately we don't get to enjoy that moment, that statement, because we didn't pull it out. The biggest issue right now is that offensively we're not in very good sync right now"