Georgia Southern returns to Hanner

Keith Smiley

After a long four game road trip against some of the most challenging competition in the Sun Belt, the Georgia Southern University Women’s Basketball team returns home on Thursday to face UT Arlington.

This will be the second time this season GSU will face off against UT Arlington and the Eagles will be looking to redeem their loss from the last meeting. It was a blowout victory on the Mavericks court, as they defeated GSU 71-30. The first meeting was GSU head coach Kip Drown’s second Sun Belt game and his players were still buying into his system. Since then, GSU has had to grow some tough skin, as they went on the road and beat their rivals Georgia State and App State and then traveled to face last year’s Sun Belt champions and the current number one team in the division in Arkansas State.

“When you’re playing the people we played, Arkansas State the number one team in our league, hasn’t been beat. Little Rock is the defending champion in our league in the NCAA tournament last year and of course are two big rivals GA State and App State. When you look to go the road with those four and get two wins, that’s not too bad,” Coach Drown said.

The Eagles are still near the bottom of the Sun Belt, and are hoping to get some wins down the road to put them into contention for a tournament spot. It has been a bumpy road for head coach Kip Drown and the Eagles in his first season, but the program has already improved in his inaugural season. Under head coach Kip Drown, the Eagles have already won more games than last year’s team, led by former coach Chris Vozab.

GSU will be looking to improve their 3-7 conference record Thursday at 5 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse against the 3-6 UT Arlington Mavericks.