Women's Basketball | 12/16/2016 12:51:00 PM

2016-17 GS WBB Quick Facts (PDF)
2016-17 GS WBB Media Guide (PDF)
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STATESBORO – Saturday afternoon, the Georgia Southern women's basketball team begins a five-game homestand with a game against the Knights of UCF. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. The five home games, spanning four weeks, includes the final two non-conference matchups of the 2016-17 season and will also see the Eagles open up their Sun Belt Conference slate.

TOYS FOR TOTS DRIVE
The Georgia Southern Department of Athletics invites fans to bring a new, unwrapped toy to the games on Saturday, December 17 (WBB vs. UCF) and Thursday, December 22 (WBB vs. South Carolina State, MBB vs. Fisk) to donate to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. GS Athletics is working closely with the university's Department of Public Safety on this toy drive. Earlier in December, the men's basketball team delivered a bunch of toys to Public Safety's office on campus. Aside from the three basketball games, the Georgia Southern Police Department is a drop off zone for Toys for Tots donations. Donations are accepted seven days a week, and drop boxes are straight through the front doors.

SATURDAY GAME SNAPSHOT
UCF vs. Georgia Southern
Saturday, Dec. 17   |  2:00 p.m. EST   |   Hanner Fieldhouse (Statesboro, Ga.)
Live Stats   |   Live Audio (GS Sports Network)   |   Live Video (GS All-Access)

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS (Twitter - @UCF_WBB)
GS and UCF have met on the hardwood in women's basketball 16 times with Georgia Southern owning a commanding 13-3 record against the Knights, including 7-1 inside Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles won 10 straight from Feb. 15, 1986 to Dec. 8, 1992. The two met twice a season for five seasons when the two were members of the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC), now the Atlantic Sun Conference. The two programs haven't met since the 2006-07 season when GS defeated UCF 75-71 in Orlando. The Knights won the last meeting in Statesboro 86-74 on Dec. 3, 1994.

Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, also known as Coach Abe, is in her first season at the helm of the Knight's program after spending the previous six seasons as the head coach at Albany, including five NCAA Tournament appearances, five America East Tournament championships and four America East Regular Season crowns. She is 249-110 all-time and is in her 12^th season as a collegiate head coach.

The Knights went 54-99 over the past five seasons, including 7-23 last year. This year, UCF has started the campaign 8-2 with road wins over FIU, Davidson and Butler. The Knights are averaging 63.7 points per game while holding their opponents to 50.8 points. As a team, UCF enters Saturday's game shooting 41.6% (241-579) from the field and are averaging 3.1 three-pointers per contest. The Knights have forced 22.1 turnovers per game, but have also turned the ball over 20 times per game themselves.

UCF is led in scoring by Zykira Lewis's 16.1 points per game. The senior guard is one of just five players to have played in all 10 games, averaging 27.9 minutes per game and enters Saturday's game shooting 44.7% (63-141) from the field and 32.2% (19-59) from three-point range. Lewis also leads the team with 38 steals and 37 turnovers. Behind her, Aliyah Gregory averages 10.0 points per game and Fifi Ndour chips in 9.2 points. Joslyn Masssey leads the team with 8.2 rebounds per game in five starts and nine games of action while Komeila Wright leads the team with 30 assists on the year. Tolulope Omokore is the only Knight to have started all 10 games for Coach Abe with Wright having started eight.

2016-17 UCF Roster
2016-17 UCF Schedule
2016-17 UCF Statistics

LAST TIME OUT (L, 54-55 at Charleston Southern)
Down by as many as 15 with just over nine minutes left in the game, the Georgia Southern women's basketball team mounted a furious comeback in the closing minutes against Charleston Southern. Senior guard Angel McGowan scored 10 points in the final minute, including draining a pair of heavily contested three-pointers, but the Eagles came up just one point short on the road as the Buccaneers held on to win 55-54 inside the Buccaneer Dome Monday night.

The Eagles (3-6), playing their final road game of 2016, were hampered by a 1-for-21 (4.8%) streak from the field during the second and third quarters. For the game, GS hit on just 14 of their 51 attempts (27.5%) compared to a 45.5% (20-44) effort by CSU (5-2).

The Eagles were led by McGowan's 22 points and Patrice Butler's 14. McGowan accounted for five of the Eagles' eight three-pointers in 28 minutes of work while Butler contributed two to go along with an 8-for-10 effort at the free throw line. Sister Sierra Butler was just two points shy of a double-double effort as the junior forward corralled in a game-high 10 rebounds and scored eight points.

Three Buccaneers scored in double figures, led by redshirt senior Alyssa Mann's 20 points. The fifth-year guard hit three treys, went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe and tallied six assists in 36 minutes of work while Ke'Asia Jackson added 15 points and Elyse Kiploks chipped in 10.

RECORD CLIMBING
- Senior Patrice Butler scored her 800th career point while at Georgia Southern against Mercer. She has scored 824 points while in Statesboro and has 955 collegiate points between her time at Furman (131) and Georgia Southern (824).
- Senior Angel McGowan is currently in the top-20 of four career categories, including the top-10 of two. McGowan is 17th all-time for points scored (1,098), 12th in steals (159), ninth in three-point field goals made (121) and fourth in three-point field goals attempted (427).
- Senior Alexis Sams is currently two points away from 500 career points. She is also in the top-11 of three career categories, including 11th in three-point field goals made (111), 10th in three-point field goals attempted (368) and seventh in games started (89).
- Junior Sierra Butler has moved into the top-20 of school history with 33 blocks.

YEAR TWO FOR DROWN AND COMPANY
When Kip Drown took over the reins of the Georgia Southern women's basketball program over a year ago, he knew the rebuild would be a process that required him, his staff and the players to be patient. After the first year, the Eagles are looking to take the next step in building a successful program and they will have plenty of experience to draw from both on the coaching side as well as on the court.

Despite being chosen 10^th in the Preseason Sun Belt Conference Coaches' Poll, the team isn't looking to just roll over. The Eagles return plenty of talent and are a year older with more experience overall while also adding key pieces at every position. Last season, the Eagles had plenty of depth at certain positions, but were inexperienced at others. With at least three players at every position this year, and some players cross-trained at multiple positions, GS is prepared to take the next step.

MCGOWAN AND BUTLER EARN PRESEASON ALL-SUN BELT HONORS
Georgia Southern women's basketball student-athletes Angel McGowan and Patrice Butler earned Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference honors as voted on by the league's coaches prior to the season. McGowan, a senior guard from Greenville, S.C., earned first team honors and Butler, a senior forward/center from Norcross, Ga., was named to the third team.

NEXT UP
Georgia Southern will close out the non-conference portion of the 2016-17 campaign on Thursday, Dec. 22 against South Carolina State at 1:30 p.m. The game against the Bulldogs will be the first half of a doubleheader with the Eagle men following with a game against Fisk. The Georgia Southern women will then open Sun Belt Conference play by hosting Georgia State on Saturday, Dec. 31 to close out the 2016 portion of the 2016-17 campaign.


The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled for a week of March Madness in the Big Easy.  New Orleans will once again be home to the two championships that will take place at Lakefront Arena from March 7-12 and ticket books can now be purchased from your our ticket office.  For more information, visit the Sun Belt Conference's championship central websites - Men's Championship – Women's Championship – and be sure to follow the @FunBelt on social media - @SunBelt.

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. Fans can purchase tickets to Georgia Southern Athletics events by visiting GSEagles.com/Tickets.