STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern women's basketball team has announced its 2018-19 upcoming schedule. The Eagles will play a challenging slate that features 14 home games at Hanner Fieldhouse and nine overall games against teams that advanced to the postseason last year. Purchase your tickets here for the season from the GS Ticket Office.
The Eagles will open the season at home on November 6th, hosting Wofford at 6:30 p.m. at Hanner. It is the third time in the four seasons of the Kip Drown era that Georgia Southern has opened the season at home, and kicks off a November that sees seven games, including three against postseason foes.
"I think it's a very good schedule," Georgia Southern Head Coach Kip Drown said. "There are some real challenging teams in the non-conference part of the slate, but I think it's very competitive for us. And the Sun Belt Conference is going to be really interesting this year."
Following the season-opener, Georgia Southern travels to Virginia Tech (Nov. 10), then returns home to face NCAA participant and in-state rival Mercer (Nov. 12). A short trip to Savannah to face Savannah State (Nov. 15) is followed by a Thanksgiving trip to New York to play Stony Brook (Nov. 20). The Eagles finish off the month with a home game against Bethune-Cookman (Nov. 25) and another in-state trip to the north side of Atlanta to take on Kennesaw State (Nov. 28).
"We're excited to get to open our season at home with Wofford. And then we have two Power Five games on the schedule, the first of which is after we open with Wofford, we go to Virginia Tech, who was the runner-up in the Women's NIT last year. They had a really good year."
Georgia Southern breaks for final exams before returning to the court on Dec. 12 at Presbyterian. The Eagles' annual Kids Day game on Dec. 14 will see Georgia Southern host Coastal Georgia at 11 a.m., then the final home game of 2018 features Winthrop (Nov. 18). The calendar year wraps up for Georgia Southern on Dec. 21 as the Eagles visit the University of Georgia in Athens, seeking their first win over the Bulldogs since 1981.
"Right before Christmas we'll go over to Athens and play Georgia, who is going to be extremely good," Coach Drown said. "It will be a great test for our kids. And besides Georgia Tech, I think we pretty much hit everyone in the state among the Division I programs. Mercer lost a couple of really good players, but they're going to come in here with an excellent basketball team. Then we have Kennesaw State up there, and of course going over to play Savannah State.
"The Thanksgiving trip to play Stony Brook, a game that we owed them after they came down here last year, is going to be a highlight," Drown said. "We'll be able to spend a couple of days in New York before game, and get to do some things with our kids that they may never get to do again."
Sun Belt play and the 2019 calendar year begins for the Eagles with home games against Texas State (Jan. 3) and UT Arlington (Jan. 5). Georgia Southern then makes its Louisiana trip to face UL Monroe (Jan. 10) and Louisiana (Jan. 12) before returning home to face Troy (Jan. 17) and South Alabama (Jan. 19). The month ends with a road trip to Texas to face UT Arlington (Jan. 24) and Texas State (Jan. 26).
Georgia Southern will have five of eight February games at Hanner Fieldhouse, beginning with the first of two Southern vs. State Rivalry Series games on Feb. 2 vs. Georgia State. The Eagles also host Louisiana (Feb. 7) and UL Monroe (Feb. 9) before traveling to Alabama to take on South Alabama (Feb. 14) and Troy (Feb. 16). Coastal Carolina (Feb. 21) and Appalachian State (Feb. 23) come to Statesboro for the final home weekend of the regular season for the Eagles. Georgia Southern then wraps up the slate on the road for three tough games, at defending Sun Belt champion Little Rock (Feb. 28), at Arkansas State (March 2) and then at rival Georgia State (Feb. 9).
"We play the Carolinas only once this year, and we make the one trip to Arkansas, but everyone else we will see twice," Coach Drown said. "The Sun Belt is always a great challenge and this year will be no different."
The Eagles will suit up one of the youngest teams in Division I in 2018-19, with five juniors, two sophomores and five freshman on the roster. Three starters and seven letterwinners overall return from 2017-18, including leading scorers Alexis Brown (9.0 ppg) and Nakol Franks (8.9 ppg), along with point guard Amira Atwater (4.3 assists per game).
