Though Kennesaw State may have ended Georgia Southern's win streak at three games, GSU remains undefeated early in conference play and looks to build on that tonight in its third- straight game away from Hanner Fieldhouse.
After Monday's non-conference loss the Owls, the Lady Eagles, who are in the midst of a month-long road trip, get back into conference play today at UNC-Greensboro. The Spartans are also unbeaten in the Southern Conference.
The Eagles began their road stint on Dec. 3 with a win at High Point and followed it up three days later with a win over Elon. But Southern (6-3, 2-0 SoCon) was blown out 61-82 at Kennesaw State on Monday in a contest which head coach Rusty Cram called "the most disappointing game we've played all year." It was the first loss for the Eagles that didn't come at the hands of a Top-25 ranked team.
"Overall, I think they just wanted the game more than we did, and they showed that," said senior guard Ashley Melson, who leads the team with 15.1 points per game.
The loss could provide motivation for the team as it re-enters conference play.
"It was more than a loss, because we kind of got beat real bad; the loss kind of hurt a lot," Melson said.
Many of the starters watched a large part of the game from the sidelines against the owls, both because they weren't effective and because Cram hoped to save them for the more important conference game today, he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Cram hadn't yet decided whether that same group of starters would be the first to take the first on Wednesday, depending on how the players rebounded from the loss and performed in Tuesday night's practice.
The Eagles didn't bother returning to Statesboro before making the trip to Greensboro, N.C., where Southern aims to extend its conference win streak to three games tonight at 7 p.m.
After beginning the season 1-5, the Spartans (4-5, 2-0) won three straight, including their first two Southern Conference games against Elon and College of Charleston. Most recently, the Spartans took down Fordham at home, 50-39.
UNCG is 23 percent shooting from behind the arc, making the Spartans the worst 3-point team in the league, and second worst in overall field goal percentage, behind only Elon. But UNCG has, in turn, limited its opponents' scoring opportunities, allowing just 57 points per game.
"They're scoring just enough to win," Cram said, "but they're limiting people from scoring on them. They're doing a very good job defensively. We're going to have to make sure that we take care of the basketball and we hit those high-percentage shots when we do get them."
Southern enters the game averaging 65.1 points per game and allowing 63.1 from opponents.
UNCG is propelled by Senior Gini Grimsley and junior guard Lakia Hyson. Grimsley, who is averaging 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, scored 16 in the Spartans' latest outing. Hyson (9.6 ppg.) and teammate TaShama Banner are averaging 2.3 steals.
"She's a great shooter," Cram said of Grimsley. "She's getting better and better all the time. We're going to have to have a hand in her face and make her work on her buckets and not give them to her.
"When she's hitting and scoring well, then they're going to win some ballgames, then they're pretty productive. If you can limit her and make somebody else have to beat you, then the odds go more towards your favor. That's certainly a point of attack and we'll go more toward Grimsley first."
Natalie Sayewich can be reached at (912) 489-9413.
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