Lady Eagles Rally Comes Up Short in Jacksonville Win

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team rallied back from a 17 point first half deficit to close within seven points in the second, but Jacksonville held on for 72-58 non-conference victory at Swisher Gymnasium, Friday night (Nov. 9).

The season opener for both teams, Georgia Southern falls to 0-1 on the season while Jacksonville picks up its first win.

Jacksonville had four players score in double digits while the Lady Eagles struggled from the field.  Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) led the team with 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.  Jacksonville’s DaVina Hamilton went 8-of-11 from the field to lead all scorers with 19 points.

“Shawnda played hard,” said 12th year head coach Rusty Cram.  “She gave us some good minutes, certainly.  It’s good to see her back and giving the minutes that she did.”

The Dolphins jumped out to an early 10-2 lead that was sparked by a bucket in the paint by Virginia Gregoire.

Strong Jacksonville shooting helped the home team produce its largest lead of the game, a 17-point, 29-12 advantage with 5:20 remaining in the first half.

Down 32-16 with 4:08 remaining, the Lady Eagles came back with a spurt sparked by a pair of Atwood free throws.  A fast break layup, then a key rebound by Atwood helped close the deficit down to 11 points with 2:50 remaining.

The Dolphins led 37-23 at the break and were led by Courtney Jackson and DaVina Hamilton with 11 points, apiece.  Jacksonville hit 14-of-26 (53.8%) from the field in the first half compared to GSU’s 8-of-25 (32.0%) field goals shooting.  Georgia Southern had four Lady Eagles with four points in the first half.

Down by 17 with 14:35 remaining in the second stanza, the Lady Eagles rallied back and were able to cut the Jacksonville lead down to just seven points with 7:21 on the clock, capped by a pair of jumpers by Jessica Geiger (Stone Mountain, Ga.) and J'Lisia Ogburn (Dublin, Ga.).

The Dolphins were able to counter GSU’s momentum in the remaining minutes of the game and held on for the victory.  The win evened up the two-game series at 1-1.

“I thought we came out very passive,” said head coach Rusty Cram.  “We didn’t come out aggressive trying to score on anybody.  We were just kind of going through the motions.”

Jacksonville only held a 36-33 advantage in the rebounds category, but outscored the Lady Eagles 32-13 in points off turnovers and 12-4 in fast break points.

“We got back into it a couple of times but we couldn’t finish it when we had good runs going and we broke down and made turnovers at the wrong time.  I’m more disappointed in the mental toughness than anything else.  We just need to get them ready for the next one on Sunday, put this one behind us, learn from it and move on.”

The Lady Eagles were without the help of seniors Tiffany Brown and Christa Waterman.  Both are out for the first six games of the season.

Georgia Southern will look to bounce back as the Lady Eagles square off with Stetson, Sunday (Nov. 11) in its second of a three-game road trip.  The game is slated for 3 p.m. in DeLand, Fla.

Category: Women's Basketball

Published on Friday, 09 November 2007 00:29