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GREENSBORO -- For the first time in ages, Fleming Gymnasium is not home sweet home for UNCG's men's basketball team.

The Spartans' 72-63 loss to Georgia Southern on Thursday night was the fourth consecutive loss on their home floor. UNCG hadn't lost four straight at home since dropping seven straight at the end of the 1991-92 seasons and the beginning of 1992-93.

Junior forward Ben Stywall had 14 points and 13 rebounds and Mikko Koivisto and Landon Clement added 11 points apiece, but an 11-0 Georgia Southern run midway through the second half broke open a tight game that featured 13 ties and eight lead changes.

Koivisto fed freshman Damian Eargle for a dunk with 10:53 to play to trim the Eagles' lead to 46-44, but the youthful Spartans made a flurry of mistakes over the next two minutes to find themselves down 13 in the blink of an eye.

UNCG (2-12, 1-4 Southern Conference) committed three of its 16 turnovers in that span and also missed a boxout on a free-throw attempt that resulted in a put-back dunk for Tyler Troupe, who led all scorers with 23 points.

The Spartans turned in a consistent performance in Saturday's overtime win at Appalachian State, committing only 10 turnovers, but UNCG's struggles against the press during the Eagles' pivotal run left coach Mike Dement scratching his head.

"That's what we were doing earlier in the year," Dement said of the turnovers.

"I thought we had shaken out of that and grown up a little bit but it came back to haunt us this evening."

Even with the lapse, UNCG whittled the deficit to single digits with eight minutes to play after Koivisto reeled off five straight points.

A pair of Pete Brown free throws with three minutes remaining trimmed the lead to 66-61 and Clement hit the first of two after being fouled with 2:12 to play to make it a four-point game.

But Clement's second foul shot rimmed out and Troupe knocked down a 3 at the other end to push the lead to eight.

Troupe scored 16 of his points in the second half.

"Troupe came in and we couldn't find him in the second half," Dement said. "He kept floating out into the corner and we weren't alert enough to find him."

The Eagles (5-8, 3-2) hit 8-of-30 shots from beyond the arc (26.7 percent) but the Spartans shot 3s almost as poorly (29 percent) and missed several open looks in the closing minutes.

UNCG does not have a senior on its roster and Dement has used 10 different starting lineups through the first 14 games. Thursday's lineup was the same for the third consecutive game and the unit was productive outside of the two-minute hiccup in the second half.

Early in the second half, Stywall became the ninth Spartans player to reach 500 career rebounds, but the only thing on his mind was not taking care of business in Fleming.

"We try and take it one game at a time, but we realize we have to defend our home court," Stywall said.

"We definitely need to take more pride about winning games at home and then steal some on the road and turn this around."

The Spartans entered having played six of their last seven games on the road. They travel to Elon on Saturday night.

"It's kind of frustrating because I thought we were taking steps in the right direction," Stywall said.

GEORGIA SOUTHERN (5-8, 3-2)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Troupe 28 9-17 2-2 2-8 0 2 23

Ward 19 2-2 0-1 1-3 0 4 4

Hanson 30 0-8 1-2 0-3 4 1 1

Drayton III 35 8-13 1-2 2-3 5 4 21

Allen 26 3-10 0-0 1-4 2 0 6

Johnson 19 5-7 1-4 1-4 3 0 11

Perry 18 1-3 0-0 1-1 1 2 2

Marshall 18 1-7 1-2 3-5 0 2 4

Pearson 6 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 1 0

Wohlleb 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0

Totals 200 29-67 6-13 15-38 15 18 72

Percentages: FG .433, FT .462.

3-point goals: 8-30, .267 (Drayton III 4-7, Troupe 3-8, Marshall 1-4, Perry 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Allen 0-2, Hanson 0-7).

Team rebounds: 6.

Blocked shots: 2 (Perry, Johnson).

Turnovers: 8 (Troupe 2, Johnson, Wohlleb, Drayton III, Perry, Hanson, Allen).

Steals: 9 (Drayton III 3, Troupe 2, Perry 2, Hanson, Allen).

Technical Fouls: None.

UNCG (2-12, 1-4)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Stywall 31 4-7 6-9 6-13 2 3 14

Jackson 11 1-2 1-2 0-4 0 1 3

Koivisto 30 4-13 0-0 0-6 3 4 11

Oliver 22 1-4 2-2 1-2 2 5 5

Eargle 27 2-5 1-4 1-5 0 2 5

Clement 11 4-8 1-2 0-0 0 1 11

Smith 18 1-3 3-4 1-3 0 0 5

Toney 19 1-5 0-0 0-0 1 1 3

Bone 15 1-1 0-0 1-4 0 1 2

Brown 16 1-2 2-2 1-1 0 1 4

Totals 200 20-50 16-25 12-40 8 19 63

Percentages: FG .400, FT .640.

3-point goals: 7-24, .292 (Koivisto 3-11, Clement 2-4, Oliver 1-3, Toney 1-5, Smith 0-1).

Team rebounds: 2.

Blocked shots: 3 (Eargle 2, Bone).

Turnovers: 16 (Stywall 3, Toney 3, Jackson 2, Oliver 2, Bone, Eargle, Koivisto, Brown).

Steals: 4 (Toney, Eargle, Bone, Brown).

Technical fouls: None.

Georgia Southern 27 45 -- 72

UNCG 29 34 -- 63

Officials -- Karl Hess, Dwayne Gladden, Roger Ayers. A -- 687.