Women's Basketball | 6/15/2017 2:49:00 PM

STATESBORO, Ga. - Former Georgia Southern women's basketball player Patrice Butler has signed for the coming season with Reims Basket Feminin from France LF2. 

Reims Basket Feminin is located in Reims, France, about two hours north of Paris. Reims Basket Feminin participates in the second division of the French Basketball Association, Fédération Française de Basket-Ball (FFBB). Last year, they posted a 15-11 record and finished sixth in their league.

"This is an awesome and exciting opportunity for me," Butler said. "I would like to thank my coaches, teammates, and the athletic administration for supporting me throughout the years at Georgia Southern. I'm excited to represent the women's basketball program and Georgia Southern Athletics while overseas for this upcoming fall. This is my career now so I'm excited to learn about the pro life, the French culture, and just the overall experience. I'm ready to get to work, and I'm looking forward to a very successful season with my team."

Butler, from Norcross, Georgia, earned second-team All-Sun Belt honors her senior season. She tallied over 500 rebounds in her career and ranks 16th in school history in blocks. As a senior, she led GS in multiple categories including field goals made (158), field goal percentage (43.4%), rebounds (211/7.0 per game) and blocks (26/0.9 per game). She sat at the top of several Sun Belt Conference categories including scoring (4th), rebounding (8th), field goal percentage (9th), free-throw percentage (5th), blocked shots (8th), 3-point percentage/FG made (13th) and both offensive and defensive rebounds (15th/6th).

"We're excited for Patrice," said GS head coach Kip Drown. "She came a long way in our program and worked hard. She's been in St. Louis the past two summers with a semi-pro team and she got noticed by an agent, who is now giving her the opportunity to go play overseas. Anytime you can have one of your players playing after college, it's good for your school and program. But more than anything else, Patrice is going to leave here with her Master's degree and will be able to do whatever she wants to do in her life when she's done playing basketball."