NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sara Bliss tallied 22 points, five rebounds and four assists, and Lipscomb held off a second-half rally by Georgia Southern to defeat the Eagles 80-74 in the women's basketball season opener for both teams Friday afternoon in Allen Arena.
Angel McGowan scored a career-high 28 points and dished out five assists to lead Georgia Southern (0-1), and
Anna Claire Knight recorded 12 points, eight rebounds and two steals.
Briana Jones finished with eight points and eight rebounds, and
Alexis Sams tallied seven points and seven rebounds.
Bliss hit all three of her 3-point attempts and was one of five players in double figures for Lipscomb (1-0). Danay Fothergill collected 17 points and eight rebounds, and Ashley Southern notched 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots. Loren Cagle and Alex Banks each scored 10.
Georgia Southern fought back from a 22-point first-half deficit to cut the lead to three points on a Jones layup with 6:26 to go. The Eagles had three possessions to get closer, but McGowan missed a 3-point try and Sams' jumper missed the mark before Bliss drove to the basket for a bucket.
The Eagles made it a one possession game three more times over the next two minutes but could not get the defensive stop they needed. A Bliss jumper pushed the lead to five points, and Chandler Cooper added a triple from the wing for an eight-point lead with 1:38 to go. McGowan answered with a 3-pointer from the wing to make the score 74-69 with 1:13 left, but the Lady Bisons went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line the rest of the way to seal the victory.
"We got a bunch of defensive stops in a row to claw our way back into it," said Georgia Southern coach
Chris Vozab. "We had a couple of empty possessions offensively, and we weren't able to get that additional stop two or three times, where one more really could have helped us to get over the hump."
The Lady Bisons scored 16 straight points in a row over a span of 4:10 in the first half to help build a 22-point first-half lead and a 15-point advantage at halftime. Lipscomb hit six of its eight 3-pointers in the first frame and shot 47 percent.
"This game showed us some of the things we talk about every day in practice, which is that every possession matters," said Vozab. "Being mentally, physically and emotionally ready – that's an every possession thing, and there were some times, especially early in the game, where we just missed assignments that we should have had. In the second half, I thought we regrouped and we were really on point with those things. Hopefully, with so many young faces in our program, we learn from this experience."
Down 18 points, McGowan scored four straight to spark a 13-2 Eagle run.
Trellanie English-Lurry hit a triple from the corner, and
Jessica Marcus capped the stretch with a jumper, making the score 53-46 with 12:19 left. The teams traded baskets for the next five minutes before the Eagles scored six straight to trim the margin to 63-60. Georgia Southern shot 50 percent in the second frame and outscored Lipscomb 47-38.
"In the second half, we executed our game plan well," said Vozab. "We ran better in transition, we got the ball inside better and we were better defensively – all the things we had talked about, we executed in the second half."
The Eagles open their home schedule with a 5 p.m. contest against Jacksonville Tuesday, Nov.18. It's a doubleheader with the Eagle men's team, and the women's game is set to tip off at 5 p.m.
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