Guard Chandler Jackson works his way around the defense. Jackson notched a double-double in the loss to Georgia Southern with 12 points and 10 assists.

With their 17 point win against the Eagles in the regular season, the Red Wolves went into the matchup expected to win by eight points. However, A-State came out of the tournament one and done against Georgia Southern, generating the first upset of the tournament. 

The Arkansas State Red Wolves became the seventh seed after tying with five other Sun Belt teams and went on to face the Georgia Southern Eagles in round three of the conference championship.

Guard Chandler Jackson scored the first points of the game after a won jump-ball layup. Georgia Southern’s big scorer of the game guard Tyren Moore, who ended the game with 25 points, followed it up with a three after A-State couldn’t get the ball off on time. 

Guard Matt Hayman scored a three in response, but Moore took the ball and the Eagles’ one point lead back. Forward Aly Tounkara was the only player to score for a while, as he made a layup and one of two free throws. 

The Red Wolves kept a lead on the Eagles for a majority of the half until the favored Jonesboro team stalled at 18 points. Georgia Southern took the stall and the lead, going from 16 points to 27 before A-State scored, which came from forward Jaxon Ellingsworth. Ellingsworth’s points came from a made one of two free throws, his only miss out of his four attempts.

Free throw shooting heavily contributed to the Red Wolves’ loss, usually shooting 76% at the line but made only 11-21, only 52%, in their loss against the Eagles. Every A-State player who visited the line during the game missed at least one free-throw during the matchup. Jackson performed the worst as he was one of four from the charity stripe.

Head Coach Ryan Pannone commented on the uncharacteristic performance from the rookie team, saying it was a struggle late into the season as well. 

“What ended up being the Achilles is something that we started the year being amazing at for most of the season, which is being a great free throw shooting team,” Pannone said. 

The Eagles’ nine point lead remained consistent for the rest of the first half, with the Red Wolves trailing 42-32 at the halftime buzzer. 

The second half started well for A-State, with back to back threes from Hayman followed by a guard Jalen Hampton layup to tie the game. A made Hampton free-throw and a Tounkara layup earned the Red Wolves the lead. 

Two made free throws by Eagles’ forward Alden Applewhite and back-to-back threes by Moore gave the Eagles back the lead. In their regular season matchup, Applewhite was only able to score six points. 

Georgia Southern got their biggest boost from the defense in the win, where they scored 15 points from 13 turnovers from A-State.

“Some turnovers really hurt us,” Pannone said. “And I think the points we gave up within transition off our turnovers and missed free throws kind of cost us.”

The Red Wolves couldn’t truly take back the lead for the rest of the game and were down by three with a chance to tie it. With four seconds to go, Hayman, A-State’s second best shooter from three, missed the game-tying shot.

The tournament loss capped off Pannone’s first season with the Red Wolves, who ended 20-12 overall and 11-7 in conference. 

Georgia Southern’s win took them to play South Alabama, a team the Red Wolves lost to twice in close games, where they decimated the Jaguars before winning a close battle against Marshall to reach the finals. The 10-seeded Eagles’ run finally came to a close against the Troy Trojans. 

While the outcome wasn’t what the Red Wolves wanted, Pannone said he was still proud of his team and what they accomplished this season.

“We had a group of young men that came together, 15 new guys had found a way to win 20 games and to set some program records in year one. There were multiple times throughout this season that our team could have broke,” Pannone said. “They didn’t quit, they didn’t stop fighting and they didn’t stop playing together and playing for each other.”

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