Georgia Southern’s women’s basketball team fell to Georgia State 63-62 in their last game before beginning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. Entering Atlanta, Southern was riding a one-game winning streak over Arkansas State, their first opponent in the tournament.

In her last career regular season game, senior Angel McGowan led the Eagles in scoring with 20 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman Alexis Brown churned out another solid performance from three point range (4/6), and finished with 14 points and five assists.

Georgia State had an outstanding performance from their bench, scoring 46 of their 63 points. Makeba Ponder and Jada Lewis led the Panther bench and team with 20 and 17 points respectively.

This down-to-the-wire game between the two rivals did not feature a furious comeback as the first meeting did. The tightly contested game featured a total of ten lead changes and six ties, and the largest lead held at the end of a quarter by either team was two.

With just 16 seconds remaining in the game, McGowan knocked down a timely three for the Eagles. Just moments later, Ponder saved the day for Georgia State and nailed one of her own, leaving just 4.6 seconds on the clock.

Georgia Southern finishes the regular season at 13-16 overall, 9-9 in the conference and enters the Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the 6th seed. They will face eleventh-seeded Arkansas State (6-24, 4-12) in the first round.

In their regular season contest, Patrice Butler’s 28 points led GS to their 84-76 victory over the Red Wolves. Arkansas State’s Brittany Fowler had her way with Eagles, scoring 27 points on 9/13 shooting.

The Sun Belt Conference Tournament is held inside of Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. First-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock and the top four seeds will enjoy a first-round bye.

Reigning Sun Belt champions and third-seeded Troy will play the winner of GS and Arkansas State in the quarterfinals. Tipoff for the Eagles’ first-round matchup is Tuesday at 7:30 pm. ESPN3 will televise the game.