Despite winning the second half, the Eagles fell 6 points short to James Madison at Hanner Fieldhouse on Thursday. GS outscored JM in both the 3rd and 4th quarter but were unable to secure the win at the freethrow line.
The Dukes started the game with a 9-0 run against the Eagles before Simone James gave the Eagles their first two points. From there JM held the lead for the whole 1st quarter with majority of their points from in the paint.
After ending the first half down by 10, 38-28, GS changed their energy going into the third quarter and cut the lead down to 3 with 5 different Eagles scoring back to back in the paint.
By the fourth quarter GS would be down by 10, 55-45, again but kept their energy and brought the game within three points with less than 3 minutes left after a 3-pointer from Zaria Johnson.
But with JM going 14-15 from the freethrow line in just the fourth quarter, the Eagles couldn’t bring the game within more than six before the end of regulation, 71-65. Junior guard/forward, Zaria Johnson had a season high of 16 points and racked up six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in Thursday’s match.
Georgia Southern head coach Anita Howard spoke on the team’s game performance. “We were able to win the second half but we had too many turnovers, and we didn’t rebound well enough,” said Howard. “But all in all it’s a valued effort on our part but we have to be able to do a little bit better.”
GS is now 14-14 (4-11) SBC and will host Coastal Carolina on Saturday, February 24th at 2 PM for their Senior Day.
Player Stats:
Ja’nya Love-Hill- 13 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists
Diamond Stokes- 10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
Kayla Thomas- 8 points, 7 rebounds
