NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – As they’ve been known to do, Rusty Cram and the Georgia Southern women’s basketball team has once again saved the best for last.
The fifth-seeded Lady Eagles won in convincing fashion early Thursday morning, knocking off No. 4 seed UNC Greensboro, 81-64, in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament at the North Charleston Coliseum.The Lady Eagles (13-17) advance to face top-seeded Western Carolina in the semifinals today at noon. UNCG ended its season at 20-10.
Georgia Southern was in the driver’s seat the majority of the game, which commenced with a Tiffany Brown 3-pointer, the beginning of a tone-setting 13-6 Eagle run that included five straight points from Chequilla Jessie.
“When Tiffany hit that shot, I saw her take a deep sigh of relief, like ‘Ok, it’s on. Let’s go,’” GSU coach Cram said. “And I thought the whole team took that same deep breath. Through the season, that’s the way it’s been. If we start off slow, we start to struggle. But once we hit that first bucket or two, we seem to play pretty well.”
Brown stayed hot, finishing with a game-high 20 points to pace four Eagles in double figures. Jessie added 12 points and 10 rebounds for her third double-double this season. Ashley Rivens and league freshman of the year Carolyn Whitney added 10 points apiece and Shawnda Atwood turned in eight points and six rebounds. A host of others were in on the effort for the Eagles, who shot 45 percent from the field for the game.
“Everybody that played contributed,” Cram said. “Probably the biggest thing that jumped out at me at the half is bench points were 15-2. That’s been a while coming, and I’m just about as proud of these young ladies as I can be.”
The Eagles were strong along the perimeter, hitting 9 of 18 3-point tries, and dominated on the boards where they owned a 49-33 advantage. Playing without their starting center was costly for the Spartans, said UNCG coach Lynne Agee.
“To handle Georgia Southern with the big bodies they have, clearly we needed more size in the paint,” Agree said. “They absolutely abused us in the paint. Our lack of size in the middle was clearly an issue today. Our guards played hard.”
Trailing 13-6, UNCG suddenly awoke, using an 18-4 run to go up by seven, 24-17, after a Kaleah Latham jumper 8:09 before the half. Georgia Southern regrouped and closed the first half with a commanding 20-6 run to take a 37-30 edge into the locker room. The Spartans never led again.
UNCG went to a full-court press to open the second half, but the Eagles broke loose and started the final period going 4-for-4 on 3-pointers.
“We just wanted to get back in the game and put pressure on the ball,” UNCG guard Kristen Boone said. “We were definitely mindful of the open people on the wings and the corners.”
The Spartans tried switching defenses, but nothing slowed the hot Eagles who won for the fourth time in five games.
“We had to do something,” Agee said. “We chased, we tried to press. They shot the lights out. We had to get out of the 1-2-1 full-court. We went straight up man-to-man until the last three or four minutes when we chased a little bit more. We were trying to scratch and claw and get in it. We didn’t play our best game, clearly.”
Cram knew his girls were focused after seeing the way they responded the demands of preparing for Thursday’s 9 a.m. game. Since Monday, the Eagles have been working out before classes to condition themselves to playing early in the day.
“They sacrificed some things this week to get prepared for this tournament,” Cram said. “They did it without griping, without complaining. They felt like it was a good move, and I just felt like they were ready to play today.”
Jessie said the Eagles (13-17) were confident they’d play well.
“We pretty much knew coming in that we were going to win the game,” Jessie said. “We worked hard, we practiced and a lot has been going on with us and Greensboro. We knew it was going to be a big game, a close game. Thank God we blew them out.”
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The Eagles showed they could hang with the Western Carolina Wildcats almost three weeks ago when GSU snuck out of Cullowhee, N.C., with an 83-81 overtime victory.
“They are the team that matches up most with us in the conference,” Jessie said. “We beat them once, but we know it’s not going to be easy going into (today). We are going to have to focus on our game plan and come out and try to do our best.”
Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.
