Women's Basketball | 3/7/2017 11:45:00 PM
Box Score NEW ORLEANS, La, - The Georgia Southern women's basketball team (13-17, 9-10 SBC) closed out the season on Tuesday evening, losing to the Arkansas State Red Wolves (7-24, 5-14 SBC) in the first round of the Sun Belt tournament. The Red Wolves pulled off the third upset of the day throughout the conference, defeating the Eagles 61-54.
Angel McGowan led the team with 19 points on the night along with six rebounds.
Sierra Butler also contributed 11 points on the night and tallied nine rebounds. Her sister
Patrice Butler also collected nine rebounds on the night.
Jada Ford led the charge for the Red Wolves with 23 points, shooting 5-8 from beyond the three point arch. Starr Taylor also tacked on 13 points for Arkansas State, while Lauren Bradshaw led the Red Wolves on the glass with 13 rebounds.
NOTABLES
- Georgia Southern shot only 31.6% (18-57) from the field, 40.0% (6-15) from three-point range. The Red Wolves shot 33.9% (19-56) from the field and although they lead the conference in three-point percentage, GS held them to only scored six three pointers on the night with a 30.0% (6-20) percentage.
- Arkansas State turned the ball over 19 times, but GS was only able to score 15 points off of turnovers.
- Although the lead changed eight times throughout the game, Arkansas State held the lead for 32:43 of play, while the Eagles only led for 4:53.
- Arkansas State out-rebounded the Eagles, 48-34.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Kip Drown
"In our first game with them, they really hurt us inside. We came into this game knowing they were going to try to make that more difficult and give us some more pressure, so we ended up switching some stuff and although we had some success with that at times, we still had quite a matchup problem. We just weren't able to find open people, we didn't get into the best of rhythms and they were able to get it done."
"The seniors did a lot for this program, and I appreciate everything they have done for this group. I told the young kids to remember how this feels because going into next season we will rely on them to get the job done. We want to be celebrating next year, so we need to use this feeling to drive us in the offseason. There were a lot of things that we accomplished that we are proud of, but right now this is a disappointing feeling."
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.
