Lady Eagles Fall to Arkansas at Thanksgiving Classic

SAN ANTONIO – The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team fell to Arkansas, 77-51 Friday night, in the first of two games at the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic in San Antonio.

The Lady Razorbacks improve to 4-0 on the season, while Georgia Southern drops to 2-3 overall early in the season.

Georgia Southern was paced by sophomore guard Elise Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) and junior guard Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) with 12 points, apiece.  Elise Whitney went 4-of-6 from behind the three-point arc for all of her career-high points.  Melson pulled down a team-high six rebounds on the night along with teammate Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.).  Sophomore guard Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) followed with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

Lauren Ervin tallied a game-high 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to complete a double-double for the Lady Razorbacks.  Charity Ford and Ayana Brereton scored 13 and 11 points, respectively.

In first half action, Arkansas jumped out to an early 12-0 lead before the six-minute drought was broken by Elise Whitney’s three-pointer with 14:02 on the clock.

But Arkansas continued to widen the gap taking advantage of their strong presence inside the paint and good shooting from the field.  The Lady Razorbacks outrebounded the Lady Eagles 24-14 and went into the locker room with a 37-21 advantage.

Georgia Southern struggled from the field, shooting 7-of-29 (24.1%) while the Lady Razorbacks connected on 15-of-30 (50.0 %) field goal attempts.

Elise Whitney’s nine points in the first half, all off three-pointers, was the team-high going into the break.  Lauren Ervin led all scorers with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.

“We couldn’t get five people on the court at the same time with the same purpose, which was to play hard and try to accomplish something out there,” said head coach Rusty Cram.  “I thought we were very lethargic to start it off 12-0.  I thought we had the looks, but we just didn’t put it in the hole.”

A bucket to start off the second half by Melson closed the deficit to 14 points, but the Lady Razorbacks responded with a pair of consecutive three-pointers by Ford to extend the Arkansas lead to 20 points, 43-23.

The Lady Eagles improved upon their first half dropping 13-of-33 field goals, but Arkansas responded with just as many buckets to secure only its second victory over the Lady Eagles in as many meetings.

“Tonight, Elise came in and gave us a big lift,” said Cram.  “I thought Melson had a good second half, taking the ball to the hole and showing some athleticism.  I was pleased with that, but overall, I thought we were very passive.”

Arkansas led the rebounds category 49-32, and tallied 21 second-chance points, compared to GSU’s eight.

Georgia Southern will face tournament host UTSA, Saturday at 4 p.m. (CT) in its second of two games during the weekend’s tournament.  Fans can follow the live video of the game on-line via www.goutsa.com.

Post-game recap and statistics will be posted on www.GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com.

Category: Women's Basketball

Published on Friday, 23 November 2007 00:29