STATESBORO - Georgia Southern women's basketball snapped a two-game slide with a 97-49 victory over visiting Albany State on Monday evening at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Eagles (3-2) knocked off the Golden Rams (0-6) in the first meeting between the two in-state schools since 1987. Georgia Southern improved to 3-0 at Hanner this year with the victory as well.
Georgia Southern began the game on an 8-0 run, but three-point shooting kept the Golden Rams in it early as a pair of threes helped Albany State close the gap to 14-13 with 3:47 left in the first quarter.
The Eagles pushed the lead to seven, 22-15, at the end of the period and pushed the lead to 15 points, 46-31, at the break.
Georgia Southern then clamped down defensively in the second half, holding Albany State to just 5-of-26 shooting from the floor (19.2 percent) and 18 points in claiming the victory.
Terren Ward led a trio of Eagles on the night with 23 points, while Simone James added 14 points and Eden Johnson chipped in 12. Albany State was led by Miana Holmes' 13 points and Elise Saffold's 12 points on 4-of-10 three-point shooting.
Eagle of the Game
Ward collected her third double-double of the season, adding 10 rebounds to go with her 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the floor. She added five steals and a pair of assists on the night.
Stat of the Game
The Eagles notched 22 assists as a team while committing a season-low 13 turnovers for a 1.7 assist/turnover ratio.
Quotables
Head Coach Anita Howard on the bounce-back win over the Golden Rams
"Twenty-two assists to 13 turnovers, we always want to have way more assists than turnovers, so I thought we shared the ball a little bit better tonight. Still a little sloppy, we've got to work on our defensive rotations a bit, I thought Albany did a great job of breaking down our defense and getting shots off. Glad it was a bounce-back game for us inside of Hanner, where we're more familiar. But we've got to get focused because we've got two strong opponents coming in this weekend."
Next Up
The Eagles will host the GATA Turkey Throwdown on Friday and Saturday, November 24 and 25 at Hanner Fieldhouse. The first day of the tournament features USC Upstate and Detroit Mercy at 2 p.m., with Georgia Southern taking on North Florida at 4:30 p.m.
