Georgia Southern Rally Falls Short in UTSA Win

SAN ANTONIO – Shawnda Atwood and Ashley Rivens combined for 31 points, but a Georgia Southern rally in the second half couldn’t close the gap as UTSA claimed a 72-52 win at the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic, Saturday night.

Georgia Southern falls to 2-4 overall after dropping both tournament games.  UTSA keeps an unblemished record at 5-0 overall with the home win.

Georgia Southern was led in points by senior guard Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) with a season-best 18 points, who was also named to the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic all-tournament team among four others.  Junior Ashley Rivens (Charlotte, N.C.) followed with a season-high 13 points and sophomore forward Jessica Geiger (Stone Mountain, Ga.) dropped 10.

UTSA’s Terrie Davis led all scorers with 24 points, while Amanda Foster and Monica Gibbs dropped 16 and 15 points, respectively.  Gibbs pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to round out her double-double performance.

In first-half action, the Lady Eagles jumped out to an early 11-4 lead capped by a three-pointer by Geiger with 16:43 on the clock.

But UTSA responded with a 14-0 run highlighted by a triple by Terrie Davis to give the Roadrunners an 18-11 advantage with 8:42 remaining in the first half.

The Roadrunners extended the lead by as many as 15 points in the first half, and went into the locker room with a 40-25 advantage.

“Once we get a lead, we have a hard time sustaining it,” said head coach Rusty Cram.  “If we get behind, it’s hard to catch up.  Then you are playing catch up and you use up all your energy to catch up.”

Geiger led the team with 10 points at the break on 4-of-7 shooting from the field.  UTSA’s Amanda Foster led the Roadrunners with 12 points.  As a team, UTSA shot a blazing 59.3 percent (16-27) from the field, while Georgia Southern struggled with 37.0 percent shooting on 10-of-27 attempts.

Georgia Southern turned the momentum back in their favor to start off the second half, thanks to a 12-3 run highlighted by Atwood’s nine points during a 4:23 stretch.  Ashley Melson’s (Newnan, Ga.) jumper with 11:03 on the clock closed the gap to just four points, 43-39.  Atwood scored 11 of her 18 points in the second half.

But the Lady Eagles were unable to sustain the momentum and UTSA maintained the lead it gained at the 9:47 mark in the first half to hold on for the victory.

UTSA led the Lady Eagles in the rebounds category, 34-27, and scored 11 second-chance points.  Georgia Southern scored 18 points off of UTSA’s 11 turnovers, compared to the Raodrunners’ 15 points.

But UTSA bettered GSU shooting 51.0 percent (26-51) from the field, while the Lady Eagles connected on 36.5 percent (19-52) of their field goal attempts.

“It was a great start and they came out focused,” said Cram of the team’s start at each half.  “They were ready to play.  But we had no bench points.  You can’t sustain leads when you don’t get production off the bench.  You have to have people contribute.”

Georgia Southern will continue their three-game road trip at Davidson to open up Southern Conference play, Thursday, November 29 at 7 p.m.

Category: Women's Basketball

Published on Saturday, 24 November 2007 00:27