Sixth Seeded Women's Basketball Heads To SBC Tournament

LAFAYETTE – After two plus months of conference play, that included playing the last five out of nine games on the road, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team (15-15, 10-8 SBC) heads to New Orleans as the sixth seeded team in the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championships, starting with a first round matchup with the 11th seeded Georgia Southern Eagles.

Louisiana has won two out their last three games, including taking down South Alabama on the road, beating Arkansas State at the Cajundome and taking the 2017-18 SBC Regular Season Champion Little Rock Trojans to overtime, losing by nine points in their final regular season game of the season.

WATCH/LISTEN/FOLLOW THE GAME: Tuesday's game will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Drew Fellios on play-by-play and Angel Grey handling the color. On the radio Jay Walker will have the call and the game will be broadcast on ESPN1420, while live stats will be provided by the Sun Belt Conference. Links to all of the ways to follow the action can be found on twitter, and at ragincajuns.com.

LAST TIME OUT: Little Rock came in to the Cajundome on the Cajuns senior night, looking to get their 20th win, but the Cajuns had other plans. Louisiana, starting all four seniors, came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. And they were led by their seniors who scored all of the Cajuns first 12 points.

Although in the end the Trojans, playing all of their starters at least 30 minutes, came back on the Cajuns and won the game, 72-63, in overtime, Louisiana had proven their point. Seeing as the pervious matchup between the two schools had resulted in a 35-point win for the Trojans, the Cajuns had proven that they could go toe-to-toe with the regular season champions.

Senior Troi Swain had a great final game in the Cajundome scoring a team high 16 points and senior Kendra Howard had a bit of a coming out party scoring 13 points herself to give the Cajuns two players scoring in double-digits. Senior Simone Fields just missed a double-double scoring seven points and leading the team in rebounds with eight.

FIELDS IS NAMED ALL-SBC: On Monday, Mar. 5, Fields was named to the All-SBC Conference Third team. She currently leads the Cajuns in scoring (9.6 ppg), field goal percentage (.474) and rebounding (5.0 rpg) and she's been a force off the bench all season long. During conference play Fields has led the Cajuns in scoring (9.8 ppg) and she's second in rebounding (4.8 rpg) and field goal percentage (.459).

REMATCH WITH THE EAGLES: In the teams previous and only meeting of the season, the Cajuns went to Hanner Fieldhouse and took down the Eagles 58-48 to win what was their third straight game at the time. In the game Louisiana's defense won the day, holding the Eagles to 25 percent shooting from the field and 19 percent from three-point range.

Statistically sophomore Jasmine Thomas was great finishing with a team high 15 points, grabbing nine rebounds and adding five assists. Swain added 14 points, Fields had 12 points and seven rebounds while freshman Skyler Goodwin had a career high 10 rebounds to help the Cajuns come away with a solid win.

WHAT THE EAGLES PRESENT: Georgia Southern enters the tournament as the 11 seed having lost six straight and they're only two wins in conference came against UTA (Jan. 27) and ULM (Feb. 8). The Eagles are scoring only 56.0 points per game and they've given up 69.7 points per game. Those numbers put their scoring margin at -13.7 and they're averaging 9.3 steals per game and 3.3 blocks per game. They're also strong from the free throw line where they're shooting .697 percent.

Georgia Southern ranks last (12th) in scoring offense (56.0 ppg) and ninth in scoring defense (66.7 ppg). They're fifth in free throw percentage (.697), blocked shots (3.3 bpg) and turnover margin (+0.9). The Eagles are 12th in field goal percentage (.328), 3-pt field goal percentage (.278) and rebounding margin (-9.6).

Both Nakol Franks and Alexis Brown are leading the Eagles in scoring averaging 8.7 points per game apiece. Brown is second on Georgia Southern in field goal shooting percentage .378 percent. While Franks leads the team in free throw shooting percentage .912 percent. Amira Atwater ranks third in the conference in assists (4.1 apg) and sixth in assists/turnover ratio (1.3). Alexis Brown sits fifth in steals (1.8 spg) and Atwater is right behind her sitting in ninth with 1.6 steals per game.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN: A win in the first round would mean that the Cajuns move onto the second round and a third matchup with the UT Arlington Lady Mavericks. That game would be a 7:30 p.m. start on Thursday Mar. 8.

FOLLOWING THE RAGIN' CAJUNS: Follow the Cajuns on twitter @RaginCajunsWBB for updates during the match and links to the live stream, live radio broadcast, live stats and a recap following the game.

#GEAUXCAJUNS

Sixth Seeded Women's Basketball Heads To SBC Tournament

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Players Mentioned

Simone Fields

Skyler Goodwin

Kendra Howard

Troi Swain

Jasmine Thomas

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