Lady Eagles Suffer Heartbreaking Loss at Florida Atlantic

Boca Raton, Fla. - It was a tale of two halves as the Georgia Southern Women's Basketball team (1-8) lost a heartbreaker as Florida Atlantic pulled out a 68-65 win Sunday afternoon. Senior point guard Jamie Navarro (Naples, Fla.) returned to the floor and was the Lady Eagles' leading scorer with 16 points, 11 coming in the second half. Lyrell Barfield scored 18 of her game-high 20 points in the second half to pace the Owls.

Meredyth Frye (Fredericksburg, Va.) had 14 points for Georgia Southern and MiMi DuBose (Jefferson, Ga.) and Samatha Williams (Kingsport, Tenn.) added 10 each. Krista Tate (Atlanta, Ga.) was the top rebounder for the Lady Eagles with eight boards in her 39 minutes of action. DaLita Scott had 11 points and Vontrice Dennis had a game-high 10 rebounds for FAU.

Georgia Southern led by as many as 18 points in the second half, but Florida Atlantic used a 15-1 run over four and a half minutes to cut the margin to four, 55-51. A three-point basket by Frye extended the GSU lead back to seven, but the Owls hit two straight three pointers to cut it to one point, 60-59, at the 6:05 mark of the second half. Florida Atlantic shot 50 percent from the floor and Georgia Southern was plagued by poor shooting in the second half, 25.9 percent, but the Lady Eagles clung to the lead until the final 52 seconds of the game.

A steal and score by Frye put the Lady Eagles back up by three, and they were up 65-61 with 2:11 left in the game, but Florida Atlantic would keep chipping away at the lead with trips to the free throw line. The Owls connected on 4-5 of their free throws to tie the score at 65 all with 52 ticks left on the clock. The two teams traded turnovers in the last 40 seconds, but a steal by April Goins with 14 seconds left set up a Barfield three-pointer to give Florida Atlantic its second lead of the game. A last-second three-point attempt by the Lady Eagles was unsuccessful.

The Lady Eagles took a 40-24 lead into the locker room at halftime behind 47 percent shooting from the floor and had nearly double the number of Owl field goals, 16-9. Georgia Southern had five three-point baskets to the Florida Atlantic's one and had forced FAU into 13 first-half turnovers. In the second half, FAU committed only four turnovers while GSU had eight. Free throws weighed in favor of the Florida Atlantic with the Owls 14 free throw attempts in the second half, 20 overall, compared to the Lady Eagle's 11 total attempts.

Two free throws started the scoring for Florida Atlantic for its only lead of the game until the final score. Navarro scored the Lady Eagles' first five points with a trey and two free throws. Georgia Southern benefitted from FAU's turnovers early in the game, scoring seven of the 19 points off Owl mistakes in the first six minutes. Down double digits for most of the first half, Florida Atlantic would cut GSU's lead to six, 24-18, with less than eight minutes left. A Lady Eagles' 13-2 run, sparked by three three-point field goals, two by DuBose and one by Williams, would stretch the lead back out to 17.

The Lady Eagles continue their road trip with a game at Stetson Tuesday, December 14th, at 11 a.m. Fans can follow the Lady Eagles on GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com and get scores at twitter.com/GSScores. Short updates are also available at facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics.

Category: Women's Basketball

Published on Sunday, 12 December 2010 18:15