STATESBORO, Ga. ? Tiffany
Brown's 1,000th-career point and Shawnda Atwood's double-double performance highlighted Georgia
Southern's 59-53 victory over Furman, Monday evening (Jan. 14), at Hanner
Fieldhouse, extending the team's perfect home record to six games.
Coming into the game, Brown (Waxhaw,
N.C.) was one point shy of eclipsing
the career milestone. She tallied the
record mark on a free throw with 11:14 on the clock in the first half. The senior guard joins 16 other Lady Eagles to
have accomplished such a feat.
The Lady Eagles improve to 9-8 overall and 5-1 in Southern Conference
play. Georgia
Southern maintains its second-place mark in the conference, sharing the spot
with College of Charleston,
behind Chattanooga
(6-0). Furman falls to 5-12 overall and
0-6 in league play.
Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) notched her fifth-career double-double
performance, her second on the season, dropping 17 points and matching a
season-high 10 rebounds. She paced the
team in points and rebounds, and dished out a team-high four steals on the
night. Brown followed with 14 points.
Things looked good for the Lady Eagles to start off as they scored 14
unanswered points in the first six minutes of the game. Katie Agin scored Furman's first bucket at
the 14:13 mark to end the drought. The
Lady Paladins were able to chip away at the 12-point deficit by halftime and
tie it up, 26-26 at the break.
Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) and Carolyn
Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) both tallied six points to lead the
team, while Furman's Melissa Liebschwager also dropped a team-high six points
in the first half.
Furman notched its first lead of the game on a pair of free throws at
the 18:41 mark of the second half. Thanks
to Kendra Berry, the Lady Paladins took a two-point lead, 28-26.
Georgia Southern responded with an 8-0 run over the
next three minutes that was sparked by a steal and a fast-break layup by Brown,
and capped by another fast-break layup, again by Brown.
A steal by Furman's Sarah Baker and her ensuing fast-break layup capped
an 11-2 scoring drive by the Lady Paladins, good enough to take a three-point
lead ? the team's largest lead of the game at 12:28.
Brown's triple with 11:56 remaining tied the game at 39-39, and the two
teams battled back and forth to three more ties over the next seven minutes.
Brown again answered with her second three-pointer at the 4:32 mark to
take the final lead of the game (52-49).
Atwood scored GSU's final seven points of the game to seal the victory
and secure the team's fourth-consecutive victory of the season.
Georgia Southern outrebounded Furman 37-32. But Furman shot better from both the field
and the free-throw line, hitting 19-of-44 (.432) and 9-of-13 (.692),
respectively, compared to GSU's 21-of-56 (.375) field-goal and 11-of-16 (.688)
free-throw shooting.
The four-game win streak is the team's best since last season's run
from Nov. 25 to Dec. 13, 2006.
Georgia Southern will continue its four-game
homestand as it hosts College
of Charleston, Saturday
(Jan. 19) at Hanner Fieldhouse. Tip-off
is slated for 3 p.m.
