Georgia Southern defeated Louisiana-Monroe 44-43 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt men’s basketball tournament on Saturday in New Orleans.
The Eagles (22-8) will play Georgia State in the finals on Sunday for the championship. It will be a rematch of the regular-season finale in which the Panthers won to clinch the regular-season title and top seed in the tournament. The team split their two meetings during the regular season.
Trailing by one in the final 10 seconds, Louisiana-Monroe’s Justin Roberson stepped out of bounds trying to drive to the basket with 8.2 seconds left to give the Eagles the ball.
However, Georgia Southern’s Jelani Hewitt missed the first free throw in a one-and-one situation, giving the Warhawks one last shot.
Roberson again drove to the basket but this missed a contested layup at the buzzer.
Hewitt led the Eagles with 11 points. Eric Ferguson added seven points and 12 rebounds. Trent Wiedeman also scored 11 points.
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