Lady Eagles Soar past Presbyterian
12/20/2007 5:01:00 AM | Women's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Four different Lady Eagles scored in double-figures as the Georgia Southern women's basketball team rolled past Presbyterian, 66-35, and captured its fourth-consecutive victory at Hanner Fieldhouse, Thursday evening (Dec. 20).
With the non-conference win, Georgia Southern improves to 5-6
overall and extends its home win-streak to four games. Presbyterian drops its fourth-consecutive
game and falls to 1-11 overall. The game was the first between the two schools.
Leading all scorers with a career-high 13 points was sophomore guard Nya Daley (Toronto, Ontario) making 5-of-10 of her attempts from the field, including a three-pointer. Seniors Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) and Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) tallied 12 points, apiece, and were followed by junior Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) with 11 points. Sophomore forward J'Lisia Ogburn (Dublin, Ga.) pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
Presbyterian was led by Katlin Moore with 11 points going a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Sharie Hopkins pulled down a team-best seven rebounds.
Georgia Southern outshot Presbyterian 42.6 percent (26-61) to 17.0 percent (8-47) from the field. The Lady Eagles also led in the rebounds category, pulling down 47 compared to PC's 37.
The Lady Eagles got a lot of help from the bench, outscoring the Lady Blue Hose 28-8.
Georgia Southern picked up the first two points of the game off the hands of Brown just under two minutes into the contest. Presbyterian tied up the game, 2-2, one minute later off a layup by Sharie Hopkins. Both teams struggled to hit their shots for the next 3:24 minutes before Atwood stopped the drought with the go-ahead bucket, 4-2 with 14:21 remaining in the first half.
The Lady Eagles never looked back as they produced a 34-16 advantage going into the half.
In second half action, Presbyterian managed to close the GSU lead to 13 points, 41-28, going on an 8-0 run capped by a pair of free-throws by Moore with 13:30 on the clock. But the Lady Eagles managed to hold the visitors to just seven more points for the remainder of the game to secure its flawless home schedule.
Georgia Southern will take a week off for Christmas and will return to action at the Virginia Commonwealth University Christmas Tournament in Richmond, Va., Thursday and Friday, Dec. 27, 28. The Lady Eagles will first clash with Boston University at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The next day, they will either take on tournament host VCU or Morgan State, Friday at 7:30 p.m.
