CONWAY, S.C. - Coastal Carolina scored the game's final six points at the free throw line to record a come-from-behind 72-69 Sun Belt Conference women's basketball victory over visiting Georgia Southern on Thursday evening in Conway, S.C.
With the win, the Chanticleers improve to 11-2 overall and 1-1 in the Sun Belt, while Georgia Southern falls to 10-4 overall and 1-1 in the Sun Belt.
Georgia Southern opened up the contest on a 14-4 run through the game's first three and a half minutes, and the Eagles went into the break leading by two, 42-40.
The third quarter saw the Eagles score just six points, but the Chanticleers scored just nine in leading 49-48 at the end of the period. In the fourth quarter, Coastal Carolina took a 64-61 lead with 3:20 left, but Georgia Southern answered with a 6-0 run to take a 67-64 advantage with 1:45 left.
The Eagles led by one, 69-68, with 41 seconds left and had the basketball with an opportunity to push the lead back to three. A missed shot was followed by a defensive stop by the Eagles, but a foul on the rebound put Angie Juste-Jean at the line with 9.6 seconds left. She made both free throws, and after an Eagle turnover, two more free throws pushed the lead to three. Daeja Holmes had a last-second three chance to tie but it went off the right rim.
Taya Gibson had 16 points to lead the Eagles on the night, while Simone James has 15. Juste-Jean finished with a game-high 25 points to go with 11 rebounds, while Aja Blount had 15 points - all in the second half.
Eagle of the Game
Taya tied her career high with 16 points and set her career high with eight rebounds in leading Georgia Southern on the night. She hit 8-of-12 shots from the floor and also drew a pair of charges before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Stat of the Game
The Eagles lost the rebounding battle against the Chanticleers as Coastal Carolina notched a +20 rebounding margin. It was the first time the Eagles had been outrebounded by 20 since losing to Furman, 73-58, on December 3, 2020.
Quotables • HEAR FULL POSTGAME COMMENTS FROM COACH HOWARD
Head Coach Anita Howard on the close loss to the Chanticleers
"Coastal's a really great team. And it's hard to play great teams on the road. Even in the first quarter, it seemed we couldn't get in the swing of things. The biggest thing tonight was rebounding. We simply flat out got outrebounded. And a lot of our players' shots weren't falling. i think we did do a decent job on the defensive end containing them. But with us scoring just six points in the third quarter, that is definitely not Georgia Southern basketball."
Next Up
The Eagles' next scheduled game at Appalachian State on Saturday, January 8, has been canceled due to player availability issues with the Mountaineers. An official announcement will be made on Friday. Georgia Southern will be next in action on Thursday, January 15, hosting Texas State in a 6 pm Sun Belt Conference matchup from Hanner Fieldhouse.
