SAN MARCOS, Texas - The Texas State women's basketball team fended off a third-quarter rally by Georgia Southern to pick up a 60-51 Sun Belt Conference victory on Saturday afternoon at Strahan Coliseum in San Marcos, Texas.

The Bobcats improve to 19-8 overall and 12-4 in the Sun Belt, while Georgia Southern falls to 5-22 overall and 2-14 in the league. The Eagles will return home for the final week of regular season play this coming week, hosting South Alabama at 5 p.m. at Hanner Fieldhouse on Thursday, March 1st. 

Texas State had a 10-7 lead with 2:53 left in the first quarter and embarked on a 15-4 run over the next nine minutes to take a 25-11 advantage with 3:54 left in the first half. The Eagles got baskets by Trellanie English-Lurry, Alexis Foulks and Rhein Beamon to cut the gap to eight, 25-17, over the next two and a half minutes. A basket by the Bobcats' Toshua Leavitt pushed the lead back to 10, 27-17, where it would remain at the break.

In the second half, Georgia Southern opened the period on a 10-3 run, getting three-pointers from Aliyah Belcher and English-Lurry to close the gap to 30-27 with 4:49 left in the quarter. The Eagles got to within one, 30-29, on a layup by Franks with 4:11 left, but the Bobcats maintained their lead to the end of the third quarter, hitting 7-of-7 free throws in the final two minutes to take a 45-41 lead into the fourth quarter. The 24 points scored by the Eagles in the third quarter was a season-best.

The fourth quarter had Brooke Holle hit two three-pointers to push the Texas State lead back to double digits, 51-41, with 6:37 remaining and the Bobcats would be able to hold on for the victory.

"The ballgame came down to two things," Georgia Southern Head Coach Kip Drown said. "The five uncontested layups in the first half that we allowed them have, two coming off of turnovers, and the the third quarter -  the free throws, where they hit the stretch at the end and that's all they took. They got fouled, we put them on the line for four straight possessions.

The Eagles were led on the night by Rhein Beamon and Nakol Franks' nine points apiece, while Alexis Foulks added 10 rebounds. Texas State placed four players in double figures, led by Leavitt's 17 points. Taeler Deer added 14 points, Zelor Massaquoi chipped in 11 points off the bench and Brooke Holle contributed 10.

As a team, the Eagles shot just 32.8 percent (21-of-64), while making just 4-of-21 three-pointers (19 percent) and hitting just 5-of-9 free throws (55.6 percent). Texas State shot 37.7 percent from the floor (20-of-53) and hit only 6-of-25 three-pointers (24 percent), while making 14-of-16 free throws (87.5 percent).

"I thought we did a great job in our halfcourt defense, when we were able to," Coach Drown said. "Their two threes they got near the end that stretched it out were off of transition stuff. When we got back and got our defense set, I thought we did an outstanding job. We held the No. 2 scoring team in the conference to 60, and really made them work for that. I'm pleased with a lot of things from our kids tonight, if we have a couple of shots go down early, particularly in the first half when we were down, we were right there."