STATESBORO, Ga. - The Arkansas State women's basketball team knocked off Georgia Southern, 71-62, in both teams' first contest of the 2018 calendar year in Sun Belt Conference action on Thursday at Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro.
The Red Wolves evened their record at 7-7 on the season - having alternated wins and losses since the first game of the year - while improving to 2-1 in the Sun Belt Conference. Georgia Southern dropped its eighth straight contest, falling to 3-11 overall and 0-3 in the league. The Eagles return to action on Saturday, hosting Little Rock at 2 p.m. at Hanner.
Each team struggled taking care of the basketball in the first quarter as Arkansas State turned the ball over 11 times and Georgia Southern turned it over eight times as the Red Wolves took a 15-13 lead. Amira Atwater hit a three-pointer to start off the second quarter, giving Georgia Southern a 16-15 lead, but Arkansas State went on a 6-0 run over the next two and a half minutes to take a 24-17 advantage. The Red Wolves kept that advantage into halftime, leading 31-26 at the break.
In the third quarter, Nakol Franks came alive for the Eagles, scoring 15 of Georgia Southern's 19 points in the period, but Arkansas State extended its lead to seven, 52-45, heading to the fourth. The Eagles tried to climb back into the game at the free throw line, hitting their first 10 shots from the line in the period, but Georgia Southern could manage only three field goals in the quarter as the Red Wolves closed out the nine-point win.
"I thought we played with them for about 37 minutes," Georgia Southern Head Coach Kip Drown said. "There were about three minutes late in the quarter where we didn't close out on a couple shooters, they hit a couple of threes and they also got a couple of offensive rebounds. It went from a one-possession game to about 10 or 11. We battled the rest of the way to try and get back in it. We're getting close though."
Franks finished the evening with a season-high 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor, including 4-of-6 three-pointers and 5-of-6 from the free throw line, while Alexis Brown had 14 points and Amira Atwater chipped in 10. Brown hit 10-of-10 free throws on the night, becoming just the eighth Georgia Southern women's basketball player to shoot 100% from the free throw line with a minimum of 10 attempts, and the first to do it since Patrice Butler on Jan. 3, 2015, vs. Texas State.
"We shot the ball much better from three point range tonight," Coach Drown said. "And that's gonna keep us in basketball games. If we just finish at the rim, this game goes down right to the wire. There's still some areas we have got to get better at."
Akasha Westbrook's double-double fo 13 points and 10 rebounds led the Red Wolves on the night, while Lycia Peevy added 13 points. Jada Ford chipped in 11 points and Morgan Wallace notched 10.
