Athens, Ga. -- For the first 20 minutes of the game, the young Stetson women's basketball team was nipping at the heels of the veteran-laden Georgia Bulldogs squad.
However, a poor third quarter eventually proved costly for the Hatters as Georgia pulled away with a 76-55 victory Sunday afternoon at Stageman Coliseum.
Brianti Saunders scored 18 points to lead the Hatters (1-1), who opened the season with two games in as many days.
"I thought it was the tale of two halves," Stetson head coach Lynn Bria said. "I thought in the first half we really executed the game plan both offensively and defensively. I felt we were locked in and I felt our effort was good.
"The second half, especially the third quarter, just killed us," Bria said. "We didn't do anything offensively. I thought Georgia increased their intensity, but I didn't think we increased ours. They increased their defensive pressure, but offensively, we didn't start to cut harder and execute better."
Stetson was the aggressor to open the game as Aisha Turner knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Myka Johnson-Matthews added a trifecta of her own to give Stetson an early 10-6 lead.
Georgia battled back and held a slim 20-17 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 39-32 halftime advantage, but the Hatters went into the break with momentum after Saunders buried one from behind the arc as time expired.
The Bulldogs (1-0) owned the offensive glass and converted 28 second chance points for the game, many of those coming in the third quarter. Georgia outscored Stetson 22-6 in the period to put the contest out of reach.
"Defensively, we gave them entirely too many points in the paint, and we gave up entirely too many offensive rebounds," Bria said. "We told our players they are not going to have zero offensive rebounds, but we need to limit them some. I don't feel like we did that."
Turner, a native of nearby Atlanta, hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points. Breana Bey added nine points and eight rebounds.
Shacobia Barbee led Georgia with 10 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. The Bulldogs shot 47 percent and outrebounded Stetson 49-24.
"We did do some things really well," Bria said. "We will certainly take those things and look at them, but we have a lot of work to do."
Stetson will visit Bethune-Cookman next Saturday in Daytona Beach.
