STATESBORO – Georgia Southern women's basketball opened up the Anita Howard era with a 93-66 exhibition victory over visiting Coker College on Wednesday evening at Hanner Fieldhouse.

The Eagles outscored the Cobras, an NCAA Division II squad from Hartsville, S.C., by 19 points in the second quarter to build a 22-point lead at the break, 52-30. Georgia Southern then held the Cobras to just 31 percent shooting in the second half to claim the exhibition win.

Eagles of the Game
Sophomore guard Jordan Strange scored 12 of her 16 points in the first half, while junior guard Tatum Barber knocked down 7-of-11 shots from the floor, including 3-of-4 three-pointers, en route to her game-high 21 points.

Key moment
Georgia Southern led by just three after the first quarter, and by nine with 3:43 left in the first half, but the Eagles closed out the second quarter on an 18-5 run to build their 22-point advantage at the break.

Stat of the Game
Both teams had plenty of opportunities at the free throw line as there were 67 combined fouls called on the night. Georgia Southern was 33-of-58 from the free throw line, which would be a school record for free throws attempted had it been a regular season contest. Coker was 27-of-39 from the free throw line on the night.

Quotables
Junior guard Tatum Barber on her strong second half
"I think in the past two years, we've struggled coming out in the third quarter. We didn't struggle as much as we normally do, but the third quarter we definitely should have played a lot better. I saw we weren't doing what we needed to so I did what I can on defense. It starts with defense, as Coach Howard always says. I do what I can on defense, and then my offense usually just comes. I was out there having fun. Usually when I'm having fun, that's when I play my best."

Head coach Anita Howard on the Eagles first time out on the court 
"It's what I expected. There were some first-game jitters, we were showing some inconsistencies throughout our quarters. We saw a lot of good things. We had a lot of things we need to continue to work on, free throws being one of them. We need to be able to knock down free throws to beat any good team. We turned the ball over a little bit more than I expected. It's my first win here at Georgia Southern. I'm super excited at the future. It's always taking it one step at a time, and I think we did take one step in the right direction.

On the game flow tonight
"It's tough. We try to play pressure defense, so the thing we have to instill in this team is to be able to play pressure defense without fouling, so that we can continue to play. We shot a lot of free throws, but we also gave up a lot of free throws. That was part of our inconsistent play where the clock kept getting stopped. We want to be out in transition going and going and going. But that's just one of those things we work on. If it was perfect now, I would be really scared."

Next up
The Eagles will host Coastal Georgia for their second and final exhibition game on Tuesday, November 5, at 6:30 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse.