The Georgia Southern Eagles had three games to play over the recent Thanksgiving Break. However, these games weren’t going to be easy as they included Kennesaw State, No. 22 Georgia and Toccoa Falls. Both Kennesaw State and Toccoa Falls were played in Hanner while the Eagles had to travel up to Athens to battle against the Bulldogs.

Kennesaw State (72-51 L):

The game started off strong for Georgia Southern with Briana Jones capitalizing on a missed layup from Kennesaw State to take a 2-0 lead against the Owls. This would be the last time that the Eagles would have the lead all night. As soon as the Eagles took that 2-0 lead, Kennesaw rallied scored 11 straight points to bring the lead to 11-2. However, this wouldn’t be close to the biggest lead of the game as that came with 12:23 left in the second half where the score became 53-30.

The Eagle defense allowed 4 out of the 5 starting Owls to score double digit points. Karly Frye was only three points away from scoring double digit points. Jasmine McAllister also had a double double.

Anna Claire Knight led the team in points for the Eagles and was one of three players on the team with double digit points. But where Kennesaw really shined over Southern was in rebounds. Kennesaw, as a team, had 44 rebounds compared to Southern’s 28.

However, not all is bad for the Eagles, because there is some shining spots for the team. First, the Eagles doubled their points from the bench compared to Kennesaw. They also went 8-12 in free throw shooting compared to Kennesaw going 14-22.

Georgia (93-52 L):

As usual for the Eagles, they started the game with the lead, however things seemed to go south after that. After taking a 2-1 lead over Georgia in the beginning, the Bulldogs scored 6 straight to take a 5 point lead over the Eagles. However this wouldn’t be close to the Eagles main problem as with only less than six minutes played, the Bulldogs had a 15 point lead. The largest lead for the Bulldogs wouldn’t come till the second half where they managed to have a 48 point lead over the Eagles.

The Eagles only shot 38.5 percent while they shot 44 percent for shots behind the arc. Both numbers improved from the first half going into the second half.

The star for the Eagles ended up being Patrice Butler who led the team in points despite only playing 17 minutes. She scored 13.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, the defense just couldn’t step up and stop the Bulldogs from attacking. The Bulldogs had a shooting percentage of 50.7 percent.

Toccoa Falls (84-36 W):

With the Eagles having a two game loss streak, it was clear they needed to send a message to Toccoa Falls that they weren’t going to be an easy win and they did just that.

The Eagles started off quick with a 12-0 lead, and they just kept attacking. In fact, Georgia Southern never gave up the lead. Their biggest margin was 48 points which is what they ended the game with.

However, there was still areas that needed improvement. The Eagles shot 1-17 in the first half behind the arc for a percentage of 5.88 percent. However, they would improve that to 4-7 in the second half.

The player of the game for the Eagles was definitely Sierra Kirkland who had a double double and shot perfect from the free throw line.

Georgia Southern’s next matchup is against Jacksonville State where they will travel to Jacksonville, Alabama this Tuesday.