Eagles lose a heartbreaker in triple OT to Georgia State

STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) – Just ten days prior to Georgia Southern’s matchup against Georgia State on Saturday, the Eagles picked up their first Sun Belt win in Atlanta against the Panthers. However, the script was flipped the second time around, as Georgia State pulled out an 88-83 win in triple overtime.

After trailing 22-11 after the first quarter, the Eagles came back to make it a 5-point game at the half. Georgia Southern led by three with under a minute left in regulation, but Georgia State hit a three-pointer to send it to the first overtime period.

In overtime, the Eagles trailed by four with 15 seconds left on the clock, but this time it was Southern with a clutch shot — Paris Gaines made a three-pointer to bring the Eagles within one. She followed it up by making one of two free throws to send it to double OT.

In double overtime, Shanti Simmons made a layup with 5 seconds remaining to tie the game at 76 and push it to triple OT. In that final period, Georgia Southern had possession trailing by one with under a minute to play, but the Panthers got a steal, extended their lead, and went on to get the win 88-83.

Simmons led the way for the Eagles with 22 points. Mckenna Eddings followed not far behind with 20, while Gaines made some clutch baskets in extra time.

“This was a tough one,” said head coach Hana Haden. “I think that this will probably be a tough one for everyone to get over — you’re that close. I think for us, something that we’ve been talking about for a lot of the year is trying to play for 40 minutes, and now tonight, we had to play for 55 minutes, and I think if you clean up some things in the first 40 minutes, then maybe it doesn’t have to come to that. It’s really tough whenever you fight as hard as our group did.”

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