STATESBORO, Ga. – The Texas State women's basketball team (6-7, 1-0 Sun Belt) won consecutive games for the first time in the 2018-19 season by defeating the Georgia Southern Eagles (5-7, 0-1 Sun Belt), 64-52, on Thursday evening at Hanner Fieldhouse.

TXST improves to 6-0 in league-opening games since joining the Sun Belt Conference and 7-1 in conference openers under the guidance of head coach Zenarae Antoine. GS has yet to win a Sun Belt opener in five attempts since committing to the league.

"I am really proud of this team," coach Antoine said. "We played hard and made things difficult for their scorers. We will enjoy this one tonight, but we have a quick turnaround to prepare for a tough Georgia State."

Texas State was led by senior guard Toshua Leavitt. The preseason All-Sun Belt selection tallied a game-high 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor. Georgia Southern emphasized running Leavitt off the 3-point line, allowing her to hoist just three attempts from deep. Leavitt canned two of the attempts.

Senior forward Zandra Emanuel controlled the paint, hauling down a career-best 14 rebounds. She collected five offensive boards and registered 12 points. Emanuel made back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter to push TXST's lead from nine points up to 13. After setting a ball screen for freshman guard Kennedy Taylor, she slipped to the rim for a wide-open layup. Then, she hustled back to her rotation in the 2-3 zone defense, intercepted a skip pass and raced down the floor for an easy score.

Junior guard Brooke Holle scored 11 points to give Texas State three players in double figures. She hit just 5-of-18 shots from the floor but was able to pull down five rebounds.

For the host Eagles, freshman forward Hailey Dias-Allen led the offensive charge. She scored a team-best 17 points on 8-of-15 shots from the floor and hauled in eight rebounds. She slid into the middle of the Bobcat zone and converted four shots from 17-feet away. Sun Belt scoring leader, junior guard Alexis Brown was held mostly in check. She tallied 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting.

Texas State was ready from the opening tip, netting the first 10 points of the game. After a GS timeout, the Eagles responded by scoring 10 of the next 14 points in the contest to make the score 14-10 with 3:10 remaining in the first. Three-straight buckets from the Bobcats allowed the visitors to carry a 20-12 lead at the end of one.

Leavitt took over in the second quarter, scoring 13 points in the 10-minute frame. She hit a pair of 3-pointers. The first came via a series of dribble moves that ended in a step-back from the left wing. She tallied the final seven Bobcat points in the half to put that Cats ahead 39-21 at the break.

Georgia Southern would not go away. The Eagles trimmed the lead to nine at the end of the third and managed to pull within seven with 2:37 to play. With the score set at 55-48, Texas State scored the next seven points and held on for a 64-52 victory.

Up next, the Bobcats will remain on the road to take on the Georgia State Panthers at 1 p.m. on Jan. 5 from GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta.

For all things Texas State women's basketball, be sure to follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.