Hot Shooting Helps Women’s Basketball Down Davidson

Saturday, February 15

Davidson, N.C.

2 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

8-17, 6-8SoCon

Davidson

12-13, 9-5SoCon

Georgia Southern

Davidson

Anna Claire Knight scored a career-high 31 points.

2/15/2014 5:29:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Marc Gignac

DAVIDSON, N.C. – Anna Claire Knight scored a career-high 31 points, and Angel McGowan added a career-high 26 to lead Georgia Southern to a 90-82 Southern Conference women's basketball victory over Davidson Saturday afternoon in Belk Arena.

Knight was 9-of-17 from the floor, and notched 11 free throws for the Eagles (8-17, 6-8) while adding nine rebounds and three blocked shots. McGowan hit 10-of-18 from the field and collected five rebounds and two steals.

Lacie Dowling chipped in 10 points and three assists, and Briana Jones contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. Danielle Spencer tallied eight points and eight rebounds.

Laura Murray registered 25 points, six rebounds and six steals to pace the Wildcats (12-13, 9-5), and Dakota Dukes notched 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Hannah Early scored 19, and Rachel Piles chipped in seven points and 10 rebounds.

The Eagles shot 49 percent from the floor and 53 percent in the second half. Their 90 points were the most for a Georgia Southern team against Division I opponent since a 97-95 overtime loss to Western Carolina in the 2005 SoCon title game. Knight is the first Eagle to score 30 or more since Meredyth Frye netted 30 at Furman in 2012.

"I'm really proud of the way we attacked so aggressively on offense," said Georgia Southern coach Chris Vozab. "Anna Claire and Angel did a tremendous job of taking the ball to the basket and staying in attack mode the whole 40 minutes. We also did a better job of doing the little things defensively which enabled us to get some crucial stops late in the game."

With the scored tied 77-77, Dowling netted a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and the Eagles made three successive defensive stops before Dowling was fouled. The senior canned two free throws, and Early missed a triple on the Wildcats' trip down the floor. Knight was fouled a hit two more from the charity stripe, making the score 84-77 with 54 second left.

Murray missed a 3-pointer for the Wildcats, and Dowling secured the rebound and was fouled. The Eagles' size on the boards proved huge as Georgia Southern got three offensive boards in a row following three misses on the second end of two shots from the line. Knight mixed in a make on the front end of one of the trips, and Jones knocked down her two to make it a 10-point margin with 35 seconds left and seal the win.

"We had some huge extra-effort rebounds, especially late in the game," said Vozab. "We talked about getting to 50-50 balls to win the game and we were able to do that today."

A Knight triple from the wing with 2.8 seconds left in the first half gave the Eagles a 41-36 lead at the break, and another Knight 3-pointer capped a 9-4 GSU run to start the second half and gave the Eagles a 10-point cushion. The contest went back and forth from there, and Davidson came back to tie the score 77-77 on a pair of Murray free-throws with 3:23 to go.

Georgia Southern returns home to face Appalachian State at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 22, on Senior Day in Hanner Fieldhouse. It's also the Pack the House in Pink game, and fans are encouraged to wear pink to support the fight against breast cancer. It's also a doubleheader with the GSU men – one ticket gets fans into both games – and Junior Eagle Club Day.

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA.