CONWAY, SC - The Georgia Southern women's basketball team (11-13, 7-6 SBC) defeated the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (9-14, 4-9 SBC) in a hard fought battle inside of the HTC Center on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles and Chants fought it out until the final seconds, but a phenomenal fourth quarter by GS lifted the Eagles to a 65-62 win over Coastal Carolina. 

Standout freshman Alexis Brown and Nakol Franks highlighted the Eagles win. Brown led the team with 15 points, four rebounds, and three assists. Franks collected 14 points herself, eight of which were scored within the final two minutes of the game. Patrice Butler collected eight points and a team-high 13 rebounds, and her sister Sierra tacked on nine points on the day. 

Ced Gibson led the Chanticleers with 22 points, five rebounds and six assists. Kennedy Archer contributed 14 points, and Naheria Hamilton scored ten. Alexis Robinson led the Chants from down low with eight rebounds.

THE STORY
The Chanticleers jumped out to a 7-2 lead to start the game, but the Eagles were able to catch up and end the first quarter trailing by five points, 14-19. Alexis Brown highlighted the first quarter with six points, despite the Eagles 26.3% (5-19) field goal percentage in comparison to the Chants 60.0% (9-15) field goal percentage to end the first quarter. 

GS came out of the first quarter on fire and increased their shooting percentage to 38.5% (5-13) heading into the half. GS led 29-25 at the half, 11 of those points coming from second-chance shots. The back-and-forth intensity continued into the last half of the ballgame, but the Chants were able to begin to pull away with the lead behind Gibson's 21 points. 

Nakol Franks came in clutch for the Eagles in the fourth quarter, sinking back-to-back three pointers within the last two minutes of the game to bring the game within reach for GS. She later was fouled and sent to the line, sinking both of her free throws to give Georgia Southern a three-point lead in the final seconds. 

A three-point lead was all GS needed to hang on for the win, moving them over .500 in conference play once again and putting them back in contention for the top-five in conference play. 

QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH KIP DROWN
"We came on this trip knowing that the teams we were playing were chasing us in the standings. I'm proud of the kids, the last thing I told them on Thursday was to have a short memory and to come down here and fight for a win. We had great effort and we stuck with it, even though we got down in the third and fourth quarter. They hit seven threes in the third quarter, we had to change up our defense and do some things we hadn't done in a while, but they stuck with it and pulled out a big road win." 

NEXT UP
Georgia Southern will return home next weekend for their final two home games. The Eagles will play UT Arlington at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16., and then face off against Texas State at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. GS will celebrate seniors Alexis Sams, Patrice Butler, Jessica Marcus, and Angel McGowan at their final home game on the 18^th.
 


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.

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