MOBILE - South Alabama used a 12-3 run during the early part of the fourth quarter to pull away from visiting Georgia Southern women's basketball and claim a 73-60 Sun Belt Conference victory over the Eagles on Thursday evening at the Mitchell Center in Mobile.

The Jaguars improved to 18-5 overall and 7-5 in the Sun Belt with the win, while Georgia Southern falls to 7-16 overall and 2-10 in the Sun Belt Conference.

A tight first half saw the Eagles trail by just three, 27-24, despite making just seven field goals before intermission. But Georgia Southern held the Jaguars to just 27.3 percent shooting from the floor in the half to keep it close.

The Eagles trailed by two at the third quarter break, 43-41, then Alexis Brown hit a three-pointer just five seconds into the fourth quarter to put GS up by one, 44-43. South Alabama answered with its 12-3 run over the next five minutes to take a 56-47 lead and then coast to the victory.

Alexis Brown led the Eagles with 21 points, while Alisha Owens added 11 points off the bench. Savannah Jones led a trio of Jaguars in double figures with a game-high 28 points, sparked by a 7-for-11 performance from beyond the arc.

Eagle of the Game
Brown notched her third double-double of the season with 10 rebounds to go with her 21 points, which included three three-pointers and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. It was her eighth 20+ point performance of the season.

Key Moment
The 12-3 run began with a layup by the Jaguars' Antoinette Lewis and included five free throws from South Alabama and a three-pointer from Jones. The Eagles were 0-for-5 from the field and committed a pair of turnovers during the stretch.

Stat of the Game
Georgia Southern entered the game shooting 38% from three-point range over their last seven games (65-of-170) but struggled from beyond the arc tonight, hitting just 4-of-19 threes (19%), the second-worst three-point percentage of the season for the Eagles.

Quotables
Head coach Kip Drown on the difference in the game
"I was really pleased, the first half in particular, with our defensive effort. But [Savannah] Jones was the difference tonight. I thought Jordan [Strange] got out two or three times on her, where we were trying to put her in attack mode. We couldn't quite put her in drive mode enough."

On the South Alabama defense
"They don't give you a lot of easy stuff. They don't have a lot of breakdowns. I thought we got into a bad rut in the first half where we were handing the ball off too much. They started switching, so we had to talk about that. We turned the ball over too much in the first half. I was tickled pink to only be down by three at half. We never just got into rhythm shooting the basketball, but that's what they do."

Next Up
The Eagles complete their Alabama swing by traveling to Troy for a 3 p.m. Sun Belt Conference contest against the Trojans on Saturday from Troy, Ala.