STATESBORO - Georgia Southern sophomore Tatum Barber collected her first career double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while the Eagles bench chipped in 34 points to help GS pick up its second Sun Belt Conference win with Thursday night's 79-71 victory over visiting Louisiana at Hanner Fieldhouse.

The Eagles improved to 7-14 overall and 2-8 in the Sun Belt with the win, while the Ragin' Cajuns fell to 6-16 overall and 4-7 in the Sun Belt with the loss. 

Georgia Southern used a late second-half run to pull in front of the Ragin' Cajuns at halftime by six, 41-35. Louisiana opened up the second half on an 11-0 run to reclaim the lead, but Georgia Southern stormed back at the end of the period to lead by four. The Eagles would lead by as many as 13 in the fourth quarter before settling on the eight-point victory.

In addition to Barber's team-high 20 points. Alexis Brown added 18 points - 16 of those coming in the second half - for the Eagles, while Alisha Owens and Nakol Franks each added 12 points off the bench. Brandi Williams led Louisiana with 25 points, while Ty'Reona Doucet collected her Sun Belt-leading 10th double-double of the season with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

Player of the Game
Barber hit 7-of-13 shots from the floor, including 5-of-10 three-pointers, en route to her 20 points. The five three-pointers were a new career high, and her 13 rebounds broke her previous high of eight, set against Bethune-Cookman on November 25th. She is third Eagle with a double-double this season, joining Alexis Brown (twice) and Hailey Dias-Allen (once).

Key Moment
Louisiana's 11-0 run to start the second half gave the Ragin' Cajuns a five-point lead, 46-41, with 6:36 left in the period. But with 1:35 remaining in the quarter and Louisiana up by three, 50-47, the Eagles closed out the period on 7-0 run thanks to a pair of Alexis Brown free throws, a three-pointer by Barber and a fastbreak bucket by Jordan Strange to retake a lead they would not relinquish.

Stat of the Game
In addition to Owens and Franks' 12 points apiece, Victoria Stavropoulos had a career-best eight points off the bench. The Georgia Southern bench total outscored the Louisiana bench, 34-6, in the contest.

Quotables
Sophomore guard Tatum Barber
On her first career double-double
"It feels really good, I really didn't think I had that many rebounds. I was just doing my job on the defensive and offensive end. It's a good win for us as a team. It feels good overall."

On the rebounding effort
"I think that just comes from heart. Playing the game I love, you just go out there with passion. Yeah you get tight out there, you can't think about being tight, you just really think about having fun. If you don't get the shot, hopefully someone else will make the shot. That's why I think a lot of my rebounds came, you just go with hustle, you go with heart."

Head coach Kip Drown
General comments of the game
"It was physical. Both teams were getting after each other pretty hard. Just a lot of contact, I'm sure it was a tough game to call. One of the keys was not to give them points that we couldn't guard, and we didn't do that very often tonight."

"It was a great team win, something I think that we really, really needed. I was disappointed last Saturday that we didn't attack as hard as we wanted to [against Georgia State]. But I thought we came out tonight and did that. I thought we played really hard and went nose to nose with them."

Next Up
Georgia Southern returns to action on Saturday, February 9, hosting UL Monroe at 2 p.m. at Hanner Fieldhouse. It is the Eagles' Pink Game as they raise awareness for breast cancer research, and it is also the Women's Basketball Reunion Game.