MOBILE, Ala. – The Georgia Southern women's basketball team got off to a solid start Saturday afternoon against South Alabama, but the Jaguar women came out in the second half with more energy and were able to out-score the Eagles 25-14 over the last half to register a 48-45 win inside the Mitchell Center in a Sun Belt Conference showdown.

The Eagles (7-16, 4-10 SBC) led 31-23 after the first half thanks in part to committing just eight turnovers while shooting 46.2% (12-of-26) from the field. They also forced the Jaguars (11-12, 7-7) to commit nine turnovers and held the home team to just 33.3% (8-of-24) shooting in the half but that would change in the last two quarters. Georgia Southern committed 12 turnovers and hit on just 20.0% (5-of-25) of their attempts from the field in the second half compared to just 7 turnovers by the Jags complimented by 42.1% (8-of-19) shooting from the field, including a scorching 71.4% (5-of-7) in the fourth period.

Junior Patrice Butler led the Eagles in scoring with 13 points off 6-for-11 shooting. She corralled in six defensive rebounds while Sierra Butler led the Eagles on the boards with seven rebounds, four off the offensive glass. The younger Butler finished the game with eight points and a steal.

Junior guards Alexis Sams and Angel McGowan both tallied 10 points in a combined 68 minutes of work. McGowan brought down five rebounds while Sams finished with four to go along with a team-high three assists.

South Alabama's Marquita Daniels led all scorers with 16 points off 4-for-9 shooting. She also went 6-for-10 from the free throw line and had a game-high four steals. Colby Davis finished the game with nine points and Taylor Jenkins ended her 28 minutes of work with seven.

THE STORY
After Davis hit a jumper in the first 20 seconds of the game, Georgia Southern went on to lead for much of the rest of the game except for a short span late in the first quarter, until late in the fourth quarter. During that time, the Eagles worked to break a staunch defense but could never build up much momentum.

In the second quarter, it appeared as if the momentum had swung fully to the side of the Eagles as they hit five three-pointers in a row, two by Sams and Sierra Butler and another by McGowan, and opened up a 10-point lead at one point. However, the Jags came out fired up in the second half and scored seven-straight points and forced two crucial turnovers to pull within one, 31-30, of the Eagles with 7:18 left in the third period.

From that point on the Eagles fought and clawed to gain back the momentum and were able to build up leads of six and seven points during portions of the third and fourth quarter, but Georgia Southern went ice-cold from the field in the fourth quarter – 14.3% (2-of-14) and turned the ball over eight times in the third. In the end, the Jaguars were able to take the lead for good when Daniels hit the second of two free throws with 2:47 left, and South Alabama held on for the eventual three-point, 48-45 win.

QUOTABLES FROM COACH DROWN
"To be honest, I felt like we lost the game there in the first two minutes of the third quarter," said head coach Kip Drown. "I felt like we did very well controlling the game in the first half and we knew that (South Alabama) was going to come out and pick up their tempo and pressure in the second half and we knew we would have to match that be aggressive attacking. But they came out and scored seven points there in the first two minutes and after that we had a real close basketball game. They made a couple plays there at the end and we didn't. It was another one of those games this year that was decided by five points or less and we haven't won any of them. We have to figure out how to make some plays in tight games like this."

On returning home for four games
"The team has been on the road for three of the last four weeks which is a tough stretch, but we have two of the best teams in the conference in Arkansas State and Little Rock coming in first and I think Little Rock is playing as well as anybody right now. We have our work cut out for us, we have to have a good week of preparation and we are going to have to be ready to match both teams' athleticism and toughness. I would rather be in Hanner than anywhere else, but it will still be a very tough weekend."

NEXT UP
After the quick swing through Alabama, the Eagles will return home for the final homestand featuring four games over an eight-day span. To start things off, Arkansas State and Little Rock will come to town on Thursday, Feb. 18 and Saturday, Feb. 20. Then, on Monday, Feb. 22, the Eagles will host in-state rival Georgia State for the second rivalry game of the season. Georgia Southern will cap their home slate with a Thursday, Feb. 25 game against Appalachian State.


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