STATESBORO, Ga. - First-place Little Rock held Georgia Southern women's basketball to its lowest point output in Sun Belt Conference play, picking up a 64-34 victory over the Eagles on Saturday afternoon at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Trojans (7-8, 4-0 SBC) continued their strong defensive start to the conference slate, holding a fourth-straight opponent to 50 points or less. Georgia Southern (3-12, 0-4 SBC) opens conference play at 0-4 for the first time since the team went 0-5 to open up TAAC play during the 1991-92 season. The Eagles will look to halt the slide on Thursday, January 11th, visiting Coastal Carolina for a 5 p.m. Sun Belt contest in Conway, S.C.
The two teams traded three-pointers to open up the contest's first minute of action, but Georgia Southern missed its next 10 shots from the floor, allowing the Trojans to go on an 8-0 run and take an 11-3 lead before Tatum Barber's three-pointer made the score 11-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Eagles stayed within five points for much of the second quarter, until Little Rock ended the period on a 7-2 run over four minutes to take a 26-16 lead at the break. The 16 points in the first half were the lowest for Georgia Southern this season.
In the second half, Little Rock extended its lead by seven to 41-24 at the end of the third quarter, then opened the fourth on a 14-5 run to pull away for the victory.
The Eagles shot just 22.9 percent from the floor (11-of-48), tying a season-low field goal percentage. Georgia Southern has not hit better than 30 percent from the floor in its last four games. The Eagles hit 4-of-20 three-pointers (20 percent) and shot 61.5 percent from the free throw line (61.5 percent). Little Rock hit 51.3 percent from the floor (20-of-39) and shot a season-best from three-point range, knocking down 7-of-12 threes for 58.3 percent. The Trojans also made 17-of-18 free throws (94.4 percent).
"We have a lot of things we need to work on," Georgia Southern Head Coach Kip Drown said. "One of our big things is turnovers. We only turned it over six times in the first half. But we come back second half, turn it over 11. 17 is down for us, but it's still not acceptable. The frustrating thing in the first half is that we were just one for 11 at the basket. We struggled to finish at the rim, just couldn't get it to go."
Rhein Beamon's six points and three steals led the Eagles offensively, while Sarah Moore notched seven rebounds. Little Rock was led by Ronjanae DeGray's 16 points, while Tori Lasker added 13 points and Terrion Moore chipped in 10 points.
"We're just struggling right now trying to get some inside scoring," Georgia Southern Head Coach Kip Drown said. "I thought Sarah [Moore] did a good job, particularly in the second quarter, rebounding the basketball and she posted hard in the second half."
Georgia Southern's 34 points are the fewest scored in Sun Belt play and are tied for the fourth-fewest in school history, with a 67-34 loss at Alabama on Nov. 21, 2011.
