STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Women's Basketball team held Davidson 18 points under its season average of 60 points and to only 27.7 percent shooting from the field in a 55-42 win at Hanner Fieldhouse Saturday. The offensive output by the Wildcats was the lowest point total allowed by the Lady Eagles this season. Georgia Southern's (6-10, 3-4 SoCon) offense clicked with 11 three pointers and 57.9 shooting from behind the arc to tie season bests in both categories. The win extends the Lady Eagles' homecourt winning streak to four.
Redshirt freshman MiMi DuBose (Jefferson, Ga.) led the Lady Eagles with 12 points. Jamie Navarro (Naples, Fla.) had 11 and Meredyth Frye (Fredericksburg, Va.) 10 in the winning effort. Krista Tate (Atlanta, Ga.) had six rebounds to go along with three assists and three steals. Navarro added four assists and four steals to her stat line.
"Defense won the ballgame, make no mistake about it," said Georgia Southern Head Coach Rusty Cram. "It was our defense that kept us in the ballgame. We did a great job of holding them to 42 points, I think they are averaging around 60. I just thought our kids played great, great defense. Our offense was good enough. In the first half it wasn't a thing of beauty, but the second half we got a little better. We got in a rhythm and certainly looked better in the second half."
Five ties and five lead changes defined the back-and-forth first half between the Lady Eagles and Wildcats. Davidson took a 5-0 lead only to have Georgia Southern tie it up after a trey by DuBose and layup by Frye. The two teams would tie at eight and 14 as the Lady Eagles and Wildcats traded scores through the first six-and-a-half minutes. Neither team would hold a lead of more than three points in the first half.
Sophia Aleksandravicius and Laura Murray combined for 10 of Davidson's first 12 points while Georgia Southern hit three-straight threes and Tate converted a three-point play for a 17-14 GSU lead. Murray added two free throws for Davidson, but Logan Youngblood (Sylvester, Ga.) hit a jumper from a Danielle Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.) pass to keep the lead at three, 19-16.
Two Kristen Johnsen field goals bookended Shneeka Center's two free throws to give Davidson a brief three-point lead, 22-19. Youngblood threw a pass to Briana Scott (Dumfries, Va.) on the left elbow for a jumper and two free throws by Frye would give the Lady Eagles a 23-22 advantage. The Wildcats did not score for the final 8:42 of the half and had seven turnovers in the final 3:10.
Georgia Southern had a five percent advantage in field goal shooting percentage and had made two more three-pointers, but Davidson outrebounded the Lady Eagles 17-12 after the first 20 minutes.
Scoring on their first four possessions of the second half, the Lady Eagles' 11-2 run put Georgia Southern out in front 34-24 after four-and-a-half minutes. Samantha Williams (Kingsport, Tenn.) hit a three and then had another jumper as the lead was extended to 13. Davidson's scoring woes didn't improve in the first 10 minutes of the second period as it had only one field goal and four Aleksandravicius free throws to that point. Georgia Southern would maintain the double-figure lead for the rest of the game.
Chole Woodington and Alexsandravicius shouldered the offense over the next five minutes for Davidson with six points from Alexsandravicius and five from Woodington. In the same stretch, the Lady Eagles had baskets from four different players with a jumper by Youngblood and threes by Navarro, Frye and Williams. Candice Ivy (Roswell, Ga.) brought the GSU lead to 54-40 with a jumper off an assist from DuBose and a free throw by Tate completed the scoring for Georgia Southern.
Georgia Southern plays host to Appalachian State (10-3, 4-1) on Monday at Hanner Fieldhouse for a 7 p.m. conference tilt. Fans who present a Harvey's Supermarket Hometown Rewards Card can receive two-for-one general admission tickets. The two-for-one ticket promotion can be redeemed online at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/tickets by entering promotional code "Harveys" or by showing a Harvey's Supermarket Rewards Card at the ticket windows at Hanner Fieldhouse.
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