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Eagles start Sun Belt tourney in New Orleans
Eagles women already eliminated
2017MBB champbracket

The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team (13-17, 9-10 SBC) closed out the season on Tuesday evening, losing to the Arkansas State Red Wolves (7-24, 5-14 SBC) in the first round of the Sun Belt tournament.

The Red Wolves pulled off the third upset of the day throughout the conference, defeating the Eagles 61-54.

Angel McGowan led the Eagles with 19 points on the night along with six rebounds. Sierra Butler also contributed 11 points on the night and tallied nine rebounds. Her sister Patrice Butler also collected nine rebounds on the night.

Georgia Southern shot only 31.6 percent (18-57) from the field, 40 percent (6-15) from three-point range. The Sun Belt basketball tournaments began this week in New Orleans.

This year is the first time that the Eagles women’s basketball team will compete in the tournament, after finishing sixth in the conference with a 13-16 overall record and a 9-9 conference record.

This year, seniors McGowan and Sierra Butler were nominated to Second Team All-Sun Belt, with McGowan leading the team in scoring with 15.7 points a game, and Butler averaging 14.8 points and a team leading 7 rebounds per game.

Men start Friday

The men’s team finished the regular season at 18-13 with an 11-7 conference record. Finishing third in the conference, they have a first round bye in the conference tournament, playing the winner of the first round matchup between Troy and Appalachian State Friday at 8:30 p.m.

Sophomore guards Tookie Brown and Ike Smith made First Team All-Sun Belt, with Smith leading the conference in scoring (19.9 points a game) and Brown finishing second in the conference in scoring (17.5 points a game).

All Sun Belt Conference tournament games can be watched on ESPN3, with the championship games Sunday.

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