Women's Basketball Returns Home for Senior Day Against Furman
2/26/2011 3:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Women's Basketball team (12-16, 9-10) returns to Hanner Fieldhouse to play host to Furman (13-15, 9-10) in the regular season finale at 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 26th. The Lady Eagles will honor three players who plan to graduate following the season. Jamie Navarro (Naples, Fla.), Krista Tate (Atlanta, Ga.) and Logan Youngblood (Sylvester, Ga.) will all be honored in a pre-game ceremony.
Navarro is a three-year starter for the Eagles and has been a regular on the court since first arriving in Statesboro. She has played in over 100 games and started in more than 80 contests. The team captain helped the Lady Eagles set a season record for three-pointers this season. The Naples, Fla., native has scored over 800 points in her career and is currently climbing the chart for individual threes in a season.
Tate has also been a regular on the court, playing in over 85 games in her career with nearly 50 starts. She has scored nearly 500 points and pulled down almost 300 rebounds. The Atlanta native has been a regular starter for the Lady Eagles this season, averaging 9.0 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game.
Youngblood has played significant minutes this season and has played in nearly every game this year. She has also started in four contests and with her best season offensively, this year, the Sylvester native has provided strong defense this season and is fifth on the team in steals.
Georgia Southern returns home, where it is 10-2, after splitting a two-game road trip in North Carolina. The Lady Eagles dropped the first game against Davidson 60-46, but rebounded with a 67-57 win over Southern Conference leader Appalachian State 67-57. Four Lady Eagles scored in double figures in the win over the Mountaineers. Samantha Williams (Kingsport, Tenn.) led the way tying her career-best with 18 points off 7-16 shooting and three treys. Tate scored 15 points with Meredyth Frye (Fredericksburg, Va.) and Navarro each adding 11.
GSU can put itself in a position to take the fifth seed in the conference tournament and avoid a play-in game. The Lady Eagles need a win over Furman and a loss by UNC Greensboro at Appalachian State to play Saturday at 9 a.m. in the four vs five-seed game. A loss to the Paladins or a win by the Spartans would put Georgia Southern in the six vs 11 seed on Thursday which will be played 30 minutes after the second play-in game.
Furman won the first meeting on January 22nd 58-50 in Greenville, S.C. Frye led the way for Georgia Southern with 17 points, while Navarro scored 11. Tate pulled down a career-best 15 rebounds and scored six points. Kendra Berry recorded a double-double to lead Furman to the win, scoring 11 points and grabbing 15 boards.
Furman is in the same boat as the Lady Eagles needing a win and a loss by UNC Greensboro to also avoid a play-in game. The Paladins are riding a two-game win streak and will play their third-straight road game in Statesboro. Furman is coming off a pair of road wins against Wofford 88-65 and Davidson 62-57 to pick up its fourth win in five games.
Kaitlin Murphy leads the Paladins with 13.4 points per game and 4.0 assists per contest. Murphy scored 13 points in each of the last two games. Three other Paladins contributed double-digit scoring, with 18 points coming from Kelly O'Connor. O'Connor is second on the team with 13.0 points per game, while Kendra Berry is averaging 10.3 a game and leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per contest.
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