STATESBORO, GA. — Elon University senior guard Jack Isenbarger was quick to get philosophical when talking about the end to the team’s game at Georgia Southern University.
“We’ve got some core veteran guys who know that adversity is going to strike,” Isenbarger said. “You really see who you are when those tough times come.”
For Elon, it was a positive sight at Hanner Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon, as the Phoenix never relented in holding off a furious charge by the Eagles for a 66-61 win.
“I thought we responded really well,” Elon senior forward Lucas Troutman said. “That goes to the veterans and the experience we’ve had over the years not to lock up and to keep pushing, keep fighting. That’s something we haven’t done in the past.”
Leading by as much as eight in the second half, Elon couldn’t get Georgia Southern to let up its aggressiveness. The Eagles slowly chipped away at the deficit, cutting it to two at the 14:23 mark but seeing it grow back to six just as quickly.
Senior guard Brian Holmes sank a 3-pointer for Georgia Southern to bring it within one with 4:55 to play but could not break into the wall that was Elon’s lead. The Eagles trailed by three with under a minute left, by a missed 3-pointer by senior guard Tre Bussey followed by a breakaway dunk from Elon junior guard Kevin Blake helped put it away.
“The guys in the huddles kept saying, ‘we win with defense, we win with getting stops,’” Elon coach Matt Matheny said. “We got the stops we needed down the stretch. I thought we handled their pressure at the end pretty well. I’m very happy with the way we responded.”
Georgia Southern (12-17, 5-9 Southern Conference) was coming off a 77-61 win at second place University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Feb. 20. Matheny acknowledged the toughness it takes to win on the road in conference play, a certain toughness that translated to the style of play between Elon and Georgia Southern.
“It was a very hard fought, physical game,” Matheny said. “I thought we really battled. We really got dirty and tried to dig out rebounds. We had a great effort from a lot of guys.”
That style had a negative side, though. Elon (17-11, 10-3 SoCon) had four players get up slowly and hobble off the court at one point or another during the game. The worst of it was senior guard Sebastian Koch, who left the game late in the first half with an apparent knee injury. Matheny said that Koch “was driving and knocked knees.”
Koch, who averages 12.9 points per game, used a workout bike near the team’s bench for much of the second half. Troutman, Blake, and guard Austin Hamilton all were tripped up at one point during the game.
Troutman stayed the course despite the chippy play, racking up 20 points on 9 of 15 shooting. He took advantage of a Georgia Southern scheme that switched defenders on screens to break open underneath the rim.
“They were putting guards on me a lot of the time, so that helped out a lot,” Troutman said. “I’d try to screen, get a guard on me, and go down low and cut to an open spot. They were so worried about screening and trying to switch that sometimes they’d lose an open gap, and I was able to find it.”
While Troutman was capitalizing down low, the Georgia Southern guards were causing havoc both on the perimeter and in the lane. Hewitt, Bussey, and Holmes all registered double figures for the Eagles.
“They have great drivers at all three guard spots,” Isenbarger said. “Hewitt’s a heck of a player. He’s been giving a lot of teams in the Southern Conference trouble.”
Elon scratched its way to an 18-12 lead midway through the first half on a 3-pointer by Isenbarger, one of four he hit on the afternoon. The Phoenix led, 34-27, at halftime.
Sophomore guard Tanner Samson sank four of his own from long range. Isenbarger finished with 14 points.
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