Lady Eagles Open the SoCon Tournament Friday
3/1/2012 4:55:00 PM | Women's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Lady Eagles begin Southern Conference Tournament play on Friday at 2 p.m. GSU will face Western Carolina in the first game and the winner of the play-in contest will face Appalachian State on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Georgia Southern (8-21) earned the #10 seed after an 4-16 conference record and faced the Catamounts a week ago, losing 55-46. The Lady Eagles defeated WCU 41-40 in Statesboro earlier this year. Meredyth Frye (Fredricksburg, Va.) leads the team with 10.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Frye is coming off a career night against Furman on Monday in which she became the first GSU player to reach 30 point since Sharon Mitchell in 1998.
Georgia Southern shot 37. 3% from the field against the Paladins, but Furman went 29-for-41 from the the free throw line to improve to .500 in conference play. Nearly joining Fry in double figures was Anna Claire Knight (Dublin, Ga.) and MiMi DuBose (Jefferson, Ga.). Both tallied nine points, and Knight went five-for-seven from the charity stripe.
Western Carolina (13-16, 8-12) enters the tournament as the seven seed after a 73-46 loss to Elon on Monday. The Catamounts are led by Kaila'Shea Menendez's, an All-Southern Conference team selection, 11.7 points per game. Ali Lane joined Menendez on the SoCon awards list and was an All-Freshman team pick after 4.9 points per game and 49 assists.
Georgia Southern leads the all-time series with Western Carolina 32-15. GSU won both of the annual contests in 2008-09 and 2009-10 series. The Catamounts faced the Lady Eagles in the tournament last year and lost 48-42. The series opened in 1982 with a 73-65 win for the Lady Eagles in Statesboro.
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