The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team turned a close game into a blowout on Saturday, Nov. 22, beating Mercer 93-72 at home.

The Eagles (4-3) could not miss. They shot 61 percent from the floor; their best shooting night against a Division I team since 1998.

But according to Head Coach Hana Haden, the real story was not just the scoring. It was the rebounding. After struggling on the boards in their last game against LSU, the Eagles focused heavily on boxing out in practice all week. It paid off, as they out-rebounded Mercer 41-23.

“I thought it was just a great team effort tonight,” Coach Haden said. “We had five people in double figures… Obviously, we had a huge emphasis on rebounding going into this game. To out-rebound them 41 to 23, I’m really proud of the effort there.”

The game started as a tight battle. Georgia Southern only led by one point at halftime, 40-39. Mercer even briefly took the lead to start the third quarter.

Then, the Eagles took off. They went on a 14-2 run to pull ahead and never looked back. They scored 53 points in the second half alone.

Shanti Simmons led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds, just missing a double-double.

“We were really focused in practice on what we needed to do,” Simmons said. “Last game, we didn’t execute and rebound well, so we came out determined that we were going to do better.”

Simmons wasn’t alone. It was a balanced attack with five players scoring in double digits:

• Shanti Simmons: 18 points

• Kishyah Anderson: 15 points

• Destiny Garrett: 15 points

• McKenna Eddings: 12 points

• Kyla Bryant: 10 points

The win snaps a six-game losing streak against Mercer and gives the Eagles their first home win over the Bears since 2009.

“All is right in the world,” Coach Haden joked after the win.