STATESBORO, Ga. – Camryn London scored a game-high 15 points, and South Alabama finished the contest with an 11-3 run to post a 55-46 Sun Belt women's basketball victory over Georgia Southern Thursday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

Patrice Butler tallied 12 points and seven rebounds for Georgia Southern (4-9, 0-2) and scored her 1,000th career point on a free throw with 6:36 to go. Angel McGowan netted 14 points to lead the Eagles.

Chyna Ellis collected 11 points and 10 rebounds, including seven on the offensive glass, and three blocked shots for South Alabama (6-7, 1-1), and Erin Autio chipped in 11 points and nine boards. Colby Davis scored eight.

THE STORY

Trailing 44-43, the Eagles missed a 3-pointer coming out of a timeout late in the game, and South Alabama got two putbacks – one by Autio and one by Ellis – on consecutive possessions to open a 48-44 cushion. The Jaguars made the score 51-44 with 47.7 to play when London converted a conventional 3-point play off of a fastbreak, and after another defensive stop, Autio dropped in a pair of free throws for an insurmountable 53-44 lead with 19.4 seconds left.

South Alabama scored the last five points of the third quarter and hit the first two buckets of the fourth to open a 42-34 cushion, the largest of the game for either team to that point. Trellanie English-Lurry and Alexis Brown buried 3-pointers for Georgia Southern to spark a comeback, and Butler's free throw cut the margin to 42-41 with 6:36 left in the contest.

The Eagles held the Jags to 33 percent shooting from the field, but South Alabama used 19 offensive rebounds to score 16 second-chance points. GS forced 23 Jag turnovers and turned the miscues into 19 points.

QUOTEABLES FROM HEAD COACH KIP DROWN

"We talked to our kids about needing to finish better but tonight, it was about starting. We played with a lot better energy in the second half, had a lot better movement. We just didn't come out the first half with any flow, any kind of movement at all. Ultimately, you look at the stat sheet, and we create 23 turnovers, we just weren't able to turn any of those into points. Ultimately, it was their 19 offensive rebounds. They really pounded us on the glass in the second half, and they hurt us along the baseline penetrating. We didn't do a very good job locking the dribble down in the corner. Those are two areas we have to work on as we get ready for Troy coming in."

"Rebounding is always scary to coaches because rebounding is simply about effort. When you outrebound people, it means you work harder than they do on the glass. Statistically, coming in, you would have said we're the better rebounding team, but you have to produce. They just worked harder on the glass than we did."

"Troy is probably the number one team in our league and they are tremendously explosive so we're going to have to be ready to play Saturday. It's going to be 94-feet of pressure, and you have to be able to handle that. It's a lot of preparation for the coaches for the next 12 hours or so to get ready for practice. It's a challenge."

NEXT UP

Georgia Southern takes on defending Sun Belt champion Troy Saturday at 2 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse. It's Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day, and Georgia Southern Faculty and Staff can purchase discount $5 general admission tickets for the whole family (up to 4 members). Plus, the concession stand will be offering $5 combos, including hot dog, chips and a fountain drink. The women's game opens a doubleheader with the men's teams, and the men's game is slated for a 5 p.m. tipoff.

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, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.