What a way to end the first night of the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Georgia Southern Eagles pushed the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns to the limit on Tuesday night, forcing three overtime periods, but the Cajuns were able to pull away after that third overtime and come away with an 88-81 victory.
The Eagles came out of the gates strong in the first quarter, getting out to a 9-2 lead with 5:05 left. However, the Cajuns managed to tie things up late in the first to give them a fighting chance headed into the second quarter, but the Eagles got out to an 11 point lead with about six minutes until halftime.
Troi Swain helped the Cajuns get within five at the break courtesy of a pair of three-pointers in the final two minutes of the first half.
Louisiana got their first lead of the ballgame in the third quarter thanks to a layup by Simone Fields with 4:50 left. Georgia Southern got their lead back and were up by as much as seven points with 5:58 left in regulation before the Cajuns tied it up in the final seconds with a pair of free throws from Jasmine Thomas.
The Cajuns closed it out in the third overtime period with an 11-4 run over the final 3:15 to advance to the next round of the tournament.
Louisiana will take on UT Arlington in the quarterfinals on Thursday with tipoff set for 7:30 pm.
-Clint Domingue