SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State women's basketball team (9-11, 4-4 Sun Belt) lost for the second-consecutive game, falling to the Georgia Southern Eagles (6-13, 1-7 Sun Belt) by a final score of 65-55 on Saturday afternoon inside Strahan Arena.

"These back-to-back losses are really hard, especially when you are able to play in front of your alumni base," head coach Zenarae Antoine said. "We need to re-evaluate as a coaching staff what we can do to help this team."

Both freshman forward Da'Nasia Hood and freshman guard Kennedy Taylor earned their first career starts against the Eagles and rewarded the decision with career games. Hood led the Bobcats statistically with 21 points and eight rebounds, both marks set new career-highs in Sun Belt Conference play. Taylor tallied 19 points, five rebounds and five assists. The 19 points marked a career-best.

The freshman tandem combined to shoot 16-of-27 (59.3 percent) from the floor and 7-for-10 (70.0 percent) from the 3-point line. The rest of the Texas State team shot 4-of-25 (16.0 percent) from the floor and failed to make a 3-pointer in six attempts. Hood and Taylor accounted for 40 of the Bobcats' 55 total points.

Georgia Southern received another 30-point outing from junior guard Alexis Brown. She registered a game-high 31 points on 12-of-21 shooting. The game marked her second 30-point performance in as many weekends as she tallied a career-high 34 points on Jan. 17 against Troy. Junior forward Hailey Dias-Allen charted 10 points and eight rebounds for the Eagles.

Coach Antoine elected to adjust the starting lineup before the opening tip, inserting Taylor at the point and Hood as the stretch-four. The move looked to pay dividends immediately. Hood converted a three-point play on the first possession of the game. Taylor found her cutting off a back screen, lobbed the ball into the post and Hood finished through contact. Hood followed with another layup off a spinning post move to score Texas State's first five points. Taylor connected on a pair of 3-pointers in the quarter. The duo scored 11 of TXST's 15 first quarter points, but the Cats trailed by a pair after 10 minutes.

Georgia Southern was able to hang onto a four-point lead at the halftime break on the strength of 18 points from Brown.

After Dias-Allen scored the first points of the second half, Texas State scored the next six points of the game to knot the score at 32-32 with 6:37 to play in the third quarter. GS responded by scoring 14 of the final 19 points in the quarter, including a banked in 3-pointer and a jump hook at the buzzer from freshman center Alisha Owens. The Eagles held a 46-37 advantage heading into the final frame.

Texas State pulled within five points at 55-50 but were not able to trim the margin any further. Brown took the game over in the fourth, scoring the final 12 points of the game for the visitors. She connected on back-to-back tough shots as the shot clock was expiring to break the backs of the Texas State comeback effort.

Up next, Texas State will travel north to take on in-state rival UTA. The game will tip at 2 p.m. on Feb. 2 inside College Park Center. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

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