MONROE, La. – Sharnice Brooks tallied 28 points and nine rebounds, and ULM outscored Georgia Southern 6-0 in the extra session to earn a 72-66 Sun Belt Conference women's basketball overtime victory over the Eagles in Fant-Ewing Coliseum Saturday afternoon.

Patrice Butler posted 23 points and six rebounds to lead Georgia Southern (4-13, 1-7), and Anna Claire Knight collected 12 points, four rebounds and four assists. Angel McGowan finished with 11 points, three assists and two steals. 

It was the first overtime game for Georgia Southern since the 2012 Southern Conference Tournament, when the Eagles fell 61-56 to Western Carolina.

Brooks was 11-of-26 from the floor and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line for ULM (8-10, 4-5), and Chelsea Tieuel netted 12 points. Christina Gray finished with eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Georgia Southern led 64-60 after a layup by McGowan with 2:32 remaining in regulation. Brooks scored a layup for the Warhawks and after Butler missed a jumper for the Eagles, Gray got a putback to tie the score with 1:21 to go.

McGowan's 3-pointer was partially blocked as the shot clock expired on Georgia Southern's next possession, and Brooks got a rebound and putback off her own miss to give ULM a 66-64 lead. McGowan answered with a driving layup to tie the score with 11 seconds left, and the Eagles got a defensive stop to send the game to overtime.

Daja Chase opened the scoring in the extra period as both teams battled back and forth, struggling to score. The Eagles went 0-for-3 with four turnovers through the first four minutes of the extra period, and Brooks added a layup for a four-point Warhawk cushion with 50 seconds left.  After a missed shot by the Eagles, Georgia Southern was forced to foul, and Aundrea Davis added a pair of free throws with 31 seconds left for the final margin.

"I thought we had some really good execution late in the second half, but unfortunately we didn't execute at the same rate in overtime," said Georgia Southern coach Chris Vozab. "Their pressure took us out of making clean cuts off of screens, and we were forced to run stuff out a little further than we'd like. No doubt we're getting closer, but this is a good league and to win these types of games, we have to have an attack mindset every single possession and execute better for the whole 40 minutes or in this case 45 minutes."

The Eagles came out hot to start the contest and made seven of their first 10 and 12 of their first 18 shots. Knight hit consecutive 3-pointers, and Butler added a third, her 12th point of the half, to give Georgia Southern a 12-point lead midway through the period.

The margin grew to as many as 14 points on a pair of McGowan free throws, but ULM began to get to the charity stripe to work its way back in the contest. Trailing 33-21, the Warhawks went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line over the next three minutes to cut the deficit to 33-28. Brooks capped the half with a conventional 3-point play, and the Eagles led 35-33 at halftime.

ULM scored the first seven points of the second half before Georgia Southern righted the ship. An 8-2 Eagle run, capped by a Sams 3-pointer tied the score 47-47 with 11:39 left, and the remainder of regulation saw four lead changes and four ties. 

The Eagles open a five-game homestand against Appalachian State Jan. 29, in a 5 p.m. tipoff. That game starts a stretch in which the Eagles play seven of their next eight games in Hanner Fieldhouse.

All-session ticket books for this year's Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championships March 11-15, in New Orleans are available at the Georgia Southern ticket office. Call 1-800-GSU-WINS!

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. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, call 1-800-GSU-WINS or visit GSEagles.com.