Falling by a score of 61-49 to the Davidson College Wildcats, the Georgia Southern University women’s basketball team dropped to 1-3 in the season on Saturday night.

The Southern Conference pre-season Player of the Year, senior Sophia Aleksandravicius, played up to the hype against GSU. The Davidson forward had 24 points and 10 rebounds and also pitched in eight blocks and three steals. Had it not been for the efforts of Aleksandravicius, the Eagles may have prevailed against its SoCon foe.

GSU junior guard Mimi Dubose had a career night, tying her season high in points with 21 and her career high in rebounds with seven. The veteran kept the Eagles together with her 57% field goal percentage from the floor in addition to shooting 4-7 from beyond the three point line.

Beyond DuBose, no Eagle scored in the double digits.

The game, although a 12-point difference, was much closer than the scoreboard will show. The Eagles actually out-rebounded the Wildcats and was nearly equal to Davidson in steals. The Wildcats only shot eight percent better from the field than GSU while the Eagles out shot Davidson from beyond the arc by 6 percent.

But the tale of the tape shows itself in the turnover category. GSU turned the ball over an astonishing 27 times, leading to 25 points from Davidson. The Wildcats only turned it over 17 times. No matter how well a team plays, 27 turnovers is almost always a recipe for disaster; especially when the other team capitalizes on those turnovers as well as Davidson did on Saturday night.

Freshman forwards Sierra Kirkland and Maggie Davis both ended the night with six points for GSU. Kirkland had as many rebounds as she did points.

This contest was the first of GSU’s SoCon schedule. The in-conference competition will continue on Monday night for the Eagles as the team takes on the Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. The squad will look to get back to .500 in the conference and 2-3 overall with a win against the Mountaineers.