SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Georgia Southern women's basketball team entered Thursday night's game at Savannah State looking for a way to stop a five-game losing skid after starting the season with a pair of home wins. Junior Sierra Butler and a balanced offensive attack helped spur the Eagles to a five-point, 50-45 road win over Savannah State inside Tiger Arena.

Butler, whose previous career-high for points was 13 in a game against Troy last season, led all scorers with 20 points off 6-for-13 (.462) shooting and made a career-high three three-pointers. The junior forward/center also corralled in a team-best nine rebounds in 26 minutes of work and made five of her seven free throw attempts (.714).

Behind Butler, the Eagles received eight points off the bench from Alexis Foulks and seven from senior Patrice Butler. Patrice did most of her damage at the charity stripe, where she went 4-for-4. Amira Atwater, Alexis Brown and Jessica Marcus all scored three points while Nakol Franks, Alexis Sams and Hailey Dias-Allen each chipped in two points.

Savannah State was led by Georgia State graduate transfer Lauren Moss's double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds. Moss went 7-for-23 (.304) from the field. As a team, the Tigers shot just 24.0% (18-75) from the field, including a dismal 12.5% (2-16) in the second quarter and 16.7% (3-14) from long-range.

Savannah State out-rebounded Georgia Southern 57-42 in the game, including 30 off the offensive glass. However, 17 SSU turnovers and many missed lay-ups hampered the Tigers' efforts.

THE STORY
Georgia Southern eased out to a 2-0 lead in the opening minutes of the game off a pair of Sierra Butler free throws. From there, the two teams traded the lead back-and-forth over the next six minutes with the Eagles taking a two-point, 12-10 lead after one quarter of play.

Georgia Southern was able to extend the lead out to as many as 14 in the second quarter, shooting 42.9% (6-14) from the field in the stanza. The Eagles out-scored the Tigers 16-4 in the second and held SSU to a dismal 12.5% (2-16) effort in the period.

The third period saw both teams hold serve for the most part, but Savannah State slowly began to chip away at the lead, out-scoring the Eagles 12-11 before really rebounding in the final quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Tigers were able to pull within four points late, but Georgia Southern's free throw shooting allowed the Eagles to hold on for the very important victory.

QUOTE FROM COACH KIP DROWN
"We got off to a pretty good start tonight. We got to the foul line quite a bit and I think that's a big part of the game for us. We had a lot of trouble keeping them off the offensive glass, that's how they stayed in the basketball game. It's an area that we will hopefully keep working on getting better. But I am proud of the team, (Savannah State) took a shot at us there at the end, but we handled that and made some free throws down the stretch. Overall, it was a good win for us and I'm proud of the team for responding."

NEXT UP
The Eagles will take the next 10 days off for exams before turning their attention to Charleston Southern. GS and CSU will play in Charleston, S.C., on Monday, Dec. 12.


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