Georgia Southern fell short to Coastal Carolina’s 57% shooting by just six points late in the fourth quarter. Senior Terren Ward finished with 31 points, her second highest scoring game this season after her 35 point game against App State.
The Eagles started their takeover early after an opening three pointer from Ward and took the lead after a layup from Lydia Freeman. Hitting 8-16 shots from the floor, GS kept the lead during the whole first half, 39-34
Going into the second half, the roles switched as Coastal shot for 77 percent in the third quarter ending it with a one point lead, 63-62. The Eagles brought the game within one again with less than 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, 71-70.
Coastal would go on a 9-2 run to secure the win over Georgia Southern.
Ward finished with 31 points, Junior Kayla Thomas earned a career high of 16 points and Ja’nya Love-Hill finished with 11 points.
With Saturday being Senior Day, and though GS can expect to see some of these seniors return next season, Coach Howard had this to say about her team’s performance. “I thought we came out strong in that first quarter, but from there, we allowed them to be the aggressive side. We wanted to out rebound them and we did that just a little bit, but at the end of the day we just didn’t fight hard enough,” said Howard.
“So it’s a little sad that our seniors had to go out with a loss. Although it’s bittersweet, I’m really proud of our seniors and what they’ve done for Georgia Southern.”
GS is now 14-15 (4-12) SBC. The Eagles will be back on the road facing off against Old Dominion on Tuesday, February 27th.
Player Stats:
Terren Ward- 31 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Kayla Thomas- 16 points, 4 rebounds
Ja’nya Love-Hill- 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
