Shorthanded Georgia Southern men's basketball (8-6, 1-1 SBC) once again found itself down 11 points at halftime against ULM (4-11, 0-2), but found life from behind the arc, knocking down 11 second-half threes and commencing 2025 with a win.
"I thought we played a great second half. I didn't think we necessarily came out and sleepwalked or anything in the first half, but I thought [ULM] played well," Bice-Peace men's basketball head coach Charlie Henry said. "They hit some shots that have been out of character for them this year, and in there we had some self-inflicted breakdowns. We had some turnovers that led to easy baskets for them and coupled that with the fact they played well on offense, we looked up and we were down 11. I told the guys that we needed to play a great 20 minutes, and we did that in the second half."
The lid remained on the hoop early on for the Eagles, trailing by six at the first media timeout. Bradley Douglas had the lone Eagles field goal in the game's first four minutes.
After Braylhan Thomas's fastbreak dunk tied the game at 11, the teams traded baskets until the Warhawks took an eight-point lead at 7:49. Nakavieon Whitetrimmed the deficit back to four with a little over five minutes left, however, the Warhawks punched back and ballooned the lead to 11 heading into halftime.
Shooting just 4-13 from three in the first frame, the Eagles found success from beyond in the second. Douglas knocked down the first three of the half, and Micah Smith fought for a pretty spinning bucket and trimmed the Warhawk lead to seven.
An important sequence flipped the game on its head with 14:37 left and the Eagles trailing by four. Thomas converted a corner three to bring it within one, and an Eren Banks steal on the next possession led to another Douglas three to take the Eagles' first lead of the day.
GS led for much of the next 10 minutes, but a late charge by ULM put them back in front by two with just over three minutes left.
Tied at 79, Douglas connected on consecutive threes to go up by six, and after a Warhawk three at the other end, White beat the shot clock with a dagger of a three to push it back to six and keep the Eagles in front for good, winning 90-82.
Douglas recorded his second consecutive 30-point effort at home and nailed a career-high eight three-pointers, becoming the first Eagle to do so since Jake Allsmiller on Mar. 3, 2018. His 30 points, six rebounds and four assists are the fourth-such effort in program history, and the first since Tookie Brown had 32 pts., 5 reb., and 9 assists at App State on Feb. 13, 2017, adding a pair of steals in the win.
White continued to shine with 17 points, five rebounds, five assists and two blocks, the first Eagle to meet those marks in a game since Jelani Hewitt had 20 points, six assists, five rebounds and two blocks at Elon on Feb. 8, 2014.
"We knew we had to wake up [in the second half]," White said. "They were hitting shots. We had to adjust and stick with the game plan but continue to play as hard as hard as we could. We knew it wasn't going to be easy to fight back, but we have been in that position before, we just had to go out there and do it."
Underclassmen also stepped up for the shorthanded Eagles, with Thomas (10) and Smith (10) reaching double figures for the first time in their careers. Banks had a career-best seven assists, and Collin Kuhl had six points and tied a career-best with a team-high eight boards after drawing the start.
The Eagles sunk a season-best 15 three-pointers in the win, their most since Jan. 20 of last year against Georgia State where the team had 17. The team also had a season-high 52.5 field goal percentage.
GS will look to remain unbeaten at home against South Alabama on Saturday.
