The Wright State Raiders women’s basketball team (2-10, 0-3 Horizon) were up big at halftime, but they blew the lead in the 2nd half of the game and ended up on the short end of the stick on Thursday with an 88-82 defeat at the hands of the Georgia Southern Eagles (7-4) in the second day of the GCU Have Fayth Christmas Classic.
Note: Macie Taylor, who left Wednesday’s game against host Grand Canyon early in the 1st quarter due to a head-on collision with opponent Callie Cooper, ended up both playing and starting against the Eagles.
In the first quarter of this game with Georgia Southern, it was a seesaw battle. Near the end of the period, Leah Johnson tied it up at 20 with a pair of free throws before Taylor hit a three-pointer to give WSU the 23-20 lead after one.
In the middle of the second quarter, Georgia Southern tied it back up at 33 with back-to-back layups from Nicole Gwynn and Indya Green, but the Raiders then scored 11 unanswered points with Claire Henson getting five of them as the green and gold had the 44-33 lead. Then following a Johnson layup, Ellie Magestro-Kennedy scored nine of the next 11 points by herself as she hit three consecutive shots from downtown as WSU was up 57-39 at the half.
In the 3rd quarter, Wright State’s lead was cut down from 14 to eight at 69-61 with consecutive buckets from Gwynn, Green, and Jamiria Jones. The Eagles finished the third on an 11-2 run and were down 72-66 after 30 minutes.
In the 4th quarter, Georgia Southern started the last 10 minutes on a 9-2 run and took the 75-74 on free throws made by Gwynn. Although Magestro-Kennedy hit a pair of three-pointers near the end to keep WSU above water as they trailed 84-82 with 14 seconds left, Bukky Akinsola (boo-KEE AH-kin-SOH-luh) – a 63 percent foul shooter coming into the contest – hit a pair of clutch foul shots before Green followed suit to give Hana Haden’s Eagles the comeback victory. As a result, Kari Hoffman’s Raiders have now dropped 6 consecutive games.
Johnson led all scorers with 24 points off the bench and shot 9-of-11 from the field to go along with 9 rebounds, Green finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds, Gwynn finished with 12 points, Mckenna Eddings had 11 points, and Akinsola had nine points off the bench.
All 10 players for WSU scored on the afternoon. Henson led the team with 16 points while making 10-of-12 free throws, while Magestro-Kennedy finished with a career-high of 15 points off the bench and shot 5-of-9 from downtown. Nine points each for Lauren Scott and Chloe Chard Peloquin, eight points off the bench for Rylee Sagester, seven points and three rebounds for Amaya Staton, and five points and three steals for Taylor.
Georgia Southern outrebounded Wright State 41-22, but they also had as many turnovers as they did assists (20 each).
Up next:
Wright State takes a day off before finishing off the weekend against the Florida Atlantic Owls on Saturday, December 21 at 12pm ET/10am MT in Phoenix.
