STATESBORO, Ga. – Patrice Butler tallied 21 points and seven rebounds, and Georgia Southern forced 25 South Carolina State turnovers to top the Bulldogs 74-58 in women's basketball action Thursday afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse.

Butler was 8 of 17 from the floor and made three of her four free-throw attempts for Georgia Southern (4-7). Angel McGowan finished with 13 points and three rebounds, and Amira Atwater collected 10 points, a career-high six assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals. Alexis Brown chipped in nine points on 4 of 7 shooting.

Bryeasha Blair tallied 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists to lead South Carolina State (3-7), while JaQuanna Murray contributed 11 points and four rebounds. Jahmia Bradley had 10 points and four boards.

The story
South Carolina State cut a 12-point halftime deficit to 47-40 on a conventional three-point play by Murray, but Georgia Southern scored the next seven points and pushed the lead to 14 on a Nakol Franks triple from the wing. That stretch was part of a 16-7 spurt that gave the Eagles a 63-47 cushion. The lead grew to 20 points on a Butler putback with 2:15 left.

Georgia Southern never trailed in the contest and netted the first eight points of the game while building a 26-13 advantage late in the first quarter behind Butler's 11 points. Blair hit a pair of jumpers as the Bulldogs opened the second frame with a 9-2 run and cut the lead to 28-24 on a Murray layup 3:32 into the stanza. McGowan and Alexis Foulks each scored four points in an 8-0 run that capped the quarter and pushed Georgia Southern's advantage to 42-30 at halftime.

Georgia Southern scored 35 points off of the 25 SCSU miscues. The Eagles also made 19 of 24 from the free-throw line to outscore the Bulldogs by 14 points at the charity stripe and outscored SCSU 12-4 on second-chance points, thanks to 16 offensive rebounds. Georgia Southern featured a balanced scoring attack with nine Eagles scoring in the contest.

Quotables from head coach Kip Drown
"I thought we came ready to play, and we played with great energy early. I thought we were aggressive - we went to the foul line 24 times - I was really pleased about that and the fact that we only had 10 turnovers. Those were probably the two big keys to the game."

"We talked about their size - they have some pretty big kids down there - so it was really critical that we got a body on people. That's really critical for us because it's our 3s and 4s that end up on the block a lot of the time. We have to really physical in the back line of that, and we have to be really aggressive up top with the guards. We're trying to play with more pressure than we did last year because we're trying to create more turnovers this year."

"We want to play at a faster tempo this year, and the best way to do that is off your defense and being able to go with hopefully turnovers and missed shots if you can get the outlet. I thought we got hands on balls, I thought we were able to get the ball up the floor and we converted a lot of that in fouls and foul shots and got to the bonus really quick."

Next up
Georgia Southern opens Sun Belt Conference play by playing host to Georgia State in Hanner Fieldhouse Dec. 31. It's a doubleheader with the men's team, and tipoff is set for 10 a.m. Fans will have a chance to win one of four New Year's Eve Holiday Getaways by registering online and attending the games. The winners will be announced at halftime of the men's game.

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