Georgia Southern beats UC Davis 116-78
26 points from Donte Gennie

box score

DURHAM, N.C. --- Georgia Southern received a career-high 26 points from senior Donte Gennie and rang up the most points by a GSU team in over 15 years, coasting to a 116-73 win over UC Davis Sunday evening in the CBE Classic at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

It was a record-setting game for the Eagles (1-0) as junior Louis Graham tied the school’s career shot blocking record, swatting five shots on the night to give him 112 for his career. He notched a double-double with 20 points and 11 boards.

Junior Dwayne Foreman also set new personal bests with 13 assists, fifth-most in school history, and eight rebounds. He was two boards shy of a triple-double as he poured in 15 points.

“I’m thrilled with our effort,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I thought we played extremely hard. In your first game you just never know what your team is going to look like, so I was pretty pleasantly surprised. We shot the ball well early in the game and I thought that broke their spirit a little bit.”

Five Eagles reached double-figures including Gennie, Graham, Foreman, senior Jimmy Tobias (14) and freshman Antoine Johnson (11). Johnson shot 4-for-6 from the field, and had four steals and three assists in his first career game.

Gennie hit double-figures for the 11th straight game and sets a new career high for the second consecutive game. Gennie notched 22 points in the 2005-06 season finale at Charlotte. His five treys (5-for-11) are also a new career high.

Georgia Southern’s 116 points are believed to be the most by a non-Duke team ever at Cameron Indoor Stadium and is the highest single-game scoring output since putting up 119 vs. Centenary on Jan. 16, 1992.

All told, the Eagles shot 46-of-92 from the floor (50%) and pulled down 65 rebounds to UC Davis’ (0-1) 36.

“We were just a lot more active on the glass,” Price added. “We had 21 offensive rebounds and when you take 92 shots, there’s going to be a lot of rebounds. Cal-Davis is more of a 3-point shooting team. Our focus was to guard the 3-point line and I thought we did a nice job of that. They were 6-of-23 so I thought we did a good job.”

The win puts GSU in the CBE Classic Durham Region final, setting up a likely showdown with the host Duke Blue Devils.

“It’s going to be a great experience for us,” said Price. We want to come in with the mindset that we are going to play as well as we can and hopefully make a good showing for Georgia Southern. For us and our program it might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing and hopefully we’ll take advantage of it.”