Louisiana women's basketball held Georgia Southern Eagles without a field goal for a five and a half minute fourth-quarter stretch to come away with a 68-58 Sun Belt Conference victory over the Eagles on Thursday evening at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Ragin' Cajuns improved to 12-9 overall and 6-3 in the Sun Belt with the victory, while Georgia Southern fell to 13-5 overall and 5-4 in the league. The Eagles also fell to 1-4 at home in Sun Belt play.
The first quarter was a tight affair as the Eagles led by one, 14-13, at the end of the period. But the Ragin' Cajuns started the second quarter on a 10-0 run and outscored the Eagles by a 28-11 margin for a 16-point lead at the break, 41-25.
Louisiana stretched that lead to 19 points, but the Eagles started their comeback by ending the third quarter on a 9-2 run. In the fourth quarter, two free throws by Lydia Freeman cut the lead to two, 55-53, with 6:03 left, but the Eagles then went 0-for-7 from the field in the pivotal stretch that allowed the Ragin' Cajuns to stretch the lead back to double digits.
Terren Ward's 15 points and 10 rebounds led the Eagles on the evening, her seventh double-double of the season. Simone James added 11 points as well for Georgia Southern. Louisiana placed four players in double figures, led by Lanay Wheaton's game-high 19 points and Tamera Johnson's double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Eagle of the Game
Taya Gibson came in off the bench and contributed nine points and eight rebounds, including six offensive rebounds on a day where the Eagles were outrebounded 16-11 on the offensive boards. She hit 5-of-6 shots from the foul line as well.
Stat of the Game
Louisiana came into the game averaging three three-pointers a game, but hit 8-of-20 from beyond the arc in the contest. The Eagles have given up at least six threes to eight of nine Sun Belt opponents so far this year.
Quotables
Head Coach Anita Howard on the loss to the Ragin' Cajuns
"When we're not hitting our shots, we tend to get a little slack on defense. And we allowed them to get comfortable. They scored well over their average in points and in threes. Teams are now sagging off on us, we just have to shoot better, especially in our own gym. Hats off to Louisiana, they played a sound defensive game."
Next Up
Georgia Southern travels to Troy to take on the Trojans in a 5 p.m. ET contest from Troy, Ala., on Saturday in Sun Belt Conference action.
