Coastal Carolina hit 6-of-10 threes in the second half, including the go-ahead three with 49 seconds left, to overcome a halftime deficit and pick up a 64-58 Sun Belt women's basketball victory over visiting Georgia Southern on Wednesday evening at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C.
The Chanticleers improved to 20-6 overall and 10-5 in the Sun Belt with the win, while Georgia Southern falls to 12-16 overall and 4-11 in the league.
Georgia Southern took a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter on a McKenna Eddings three-pointer. The Eagles extended that lead to seven, 29-22, at halftime thanks to a big first half from Leah Johnson, who recorded nine points and 10 rebounds before the break.
Coastal Carolina opened the second half on a 10-2 run over the first four and a half minutes to take 32-31 lead. Four more lead changes in the frame resulted in the Chanticleers taking a one-point lead, 42-41, into the fourth quarter.
A bucket for Johnson to start the fourth put the Eagles back in front by one, but Coastal embarked on a 12-4 run over the next five minutes to take a 54-47 lead with 4:44. Georgia Southern rallied to tie the game at 58-all on an Indya Green layup with 1:03 left, but Kristin Williams' three-pointer with 49 seconds remaining broke the deadlock and the Chants were able to come away with the win.
Johnson led the Eagles offensively with 20 points, while Green finished with 18 points. Williams hit 4-of-6 threes en route to her 18 points to lead CCU.
Eagle of the Game
Johnson added a season high-tying 18 rebounds for her second double-double of the season for the Eagles. She hit 7-of-11 shots from the floor and 6-of-8 from the free throw line for her 20 points and also added a pair of blocked shots. Johnson now has 36 blocks on the year, which ranks seventh on the single season block chart at Georgia Southern.
Stat of the Game
In last Wednesday's game in Statesboro and in the first half of tonight's game, Georgia Southern held Coastal Carolina to a combined 4-of-25 from three-point range (16%). CCU then shot 60% (6-of-10) in the second half tonight.
Quotables
Head coach Hana Haden on the difference in the three-pointers from Coastal in the second half
"For the lack of a better term, we fell asleep. They really only had one shooter, number 5 [Williams], that we were pretty keyed into the entire game, but in really critical moments we just had a mental lapse and lost her. She made some big time shots."
Coach Haden on the efforts of Johnson and Green on the inside tonight (combined 36 points and 26 rebounds)
They were switching guards onto our posts whenever we set ball screens, so we were just trying to expose that. Big time effort from both, big time toughness. I thought they played through a ton of contact down there. They gave us a lot of points, a ton of rebounds and did a good job with the physicality.
Next Up
Georgia Southern plays its final road game of the regular season on Saturday, February 22, visiting Old Dominion for a 2 p.m. contest against the Monarchs in Norfolk, Va.
