Georgia Southern advances in Southern Conference semifinals,dropping Wofford

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Posted 6:23AM on Friday, March 5, 2004

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - Georgia Southern's Jeff Price couldn't stop the uneasy feeling he had before the game. His players made sure it went away early. Elton Nesbitt had 17 points and Frank Bennett 15 as the Eagles (21-7) reached the semifinals of the Southern Conference tournament for the first time in three years with a 82-69 victory over Wofford on Thursday night. Price, like most of the league's coaches, hung around for the early tournament games. He watched the team with league's best record, East Tennessee State, trail Furman at halftime. Then he saw Davidson, another team with a first-round bye, look awful during its first half against Elon. Price was worried his Eagles, playing for the first time and coming off a sickening loss to last-place Citadel last week, might struggle as well. ``I've had some other teams with the bye come in and not handle it well,'' Price said. ``I don't think these guys thought about it once.'' Apparently not. The Eagles broke on top 10-2 and rarely looked back the final 30 minutes. ``That Citadel loss took a big chunk out of us,'' Nesbitt said. And Georgia Southern made Wofford pay. Nesbitt and Bennett helped build the early lead early and hang on throughout. Nesbitt and Bennett had two baskets apiece during the Eagles' 11-3 run that gave them a 30-21 lead in the first half. Courtney Joseph had six points and Nesbitt a long 3-pointer to start the second half and put Georgia Southern up 46-31. Wofford (9-20) sliced the lead to nine points twice in the last five minutes and each time the Eagles answered. Bennett had a power jam to stop one rally while Nesbitt made two foul shots to restore control a second time. The Eagles have made the semifinals three times in their previous 10 tournaments, yet never advanced to the championship to play for the league's title and the automatic NCAA tournament berth. To get there this time, Georgia Southern will face Chattanooga in Friday's semifinals. Bennett had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Eagles. Jean Francois had 12 points and 13 rebounds. Borders led the Terriers with 23 points, while Howard Wilkerson added 17 points and 12 rebounds. Wofford coach Mike Young said there was little his team could do to slow the Eagles. ``Their speed and quickness across the board, I marvel at,'' he said. ``We just couldn't get over the hump, put some pressure on them and give them a chance to crack.'' There wouldn't be any cracking like in 2000 and 2002 when Georgia Southern came here with a bye and left after one game. Price says he really shouldn't have worried. The team showed him in practice they had put their stretch of four losses in seven games behind it. ``We tried to focus on doing the little things,'' Francois said, ``like staying strong on the defensive end.'' Maybe Price now won't worry so much next time. (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)