Lady Panthers fall in overtime
    SAVANNAH — The Portal Lady Panthers opened region play on the road in dramatic fashion, forcing overtime at Savannah Country Day, only to fall, 42-40, in overtime on Friday.
    The Panthers (5-4, 0-1 Region 3A-A) trailed by double digits in the fourth quarter, but outscored SCD, 17-2 to tie the game at 38 in regulation.
    The Hornets' Taylor Parker (16 points) hit a pair of jumpers in the extra period to lead Country Day to the win.
    Portal was led in scoring by Mary Lane and Breyonna Raymond, who each finished with 11 points.
    Portal hosts Wheeler County today at 6 p.m.

Price leads Claxton over Lady Raiders
    SAVANNAH — Jazmine Price scored 22 points and led the Claxton Lady Tigers to a 59-47 win over Savannah Christian Friday on the road.
    Taylor Fiveash added 11 for the Tigers (8-4, 1-0 Region 3A-A). CLaxton returns east on Tuesday to face Savannah Country Day at 6 p.m.

Raiders edge Tigers in OT
    SAVANNAH — Overtime was popular on Friday night, as Savannah Christian outscored the Claxton Tigers, 9-4 in the extra period to take a 63-56 win Friday.
    The Tigers (8-4, 0-1 Region 3A-A) were led by Cornelious Taylor, who finished the game with 18 points.
    Monterius Valentine added 13 points on the night for Claxton.

Newton goes wild in BA win
    SAVANNAH — Anna Newton scored 26 points and the Bulloch Academy Lady Gators (13-2) pounded Memorial Day, 63-22, Friday on the road.
    Ashley Burke added 8 points for the Gators, and Pate Lomax and Mimi Rasenberger each added 7 points.
    Bulloch returns to action Tuesday at home in the region opener against Pinewood Christian.

24 Eagles named to All-Academic team
    SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Two dozen Georgia Southern Eagles were named to the Academic All-Southern Conference Team for the 2012 fall semester as announced by the league office on Friday.
    Of the Eagles' 24 Academic All-Southern Conference selections, seven came from the men's soccer team while the women's soccer team and the volleyball team had six honorees each.
    In all, 302 Southern Conference student-athletes were selected to this year's team, surpassing last year’s fall total by one. Among the 302 student-athletes were at least 14 representatives from each of the 12 SoCon institutions.
    To be eligible, student-athletes, participating in men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball, must carry at least a 3.3 cumulative GPA entering the fall season and were required to compete in at least one-half of their teams’ competitions during the recently concluded fall campaign. In addition, the student-athletes must have successfully completed at least 24 credit hours in the previous two semesters.

Georgia Southern S&D opens 2013
    The Georgia Southern Swimming and Diving squad opens the New Year with a dual meet on Saturday in Fort Myers, Fla. The team will take on North Dakota as well as conference foes Florida Gulf Coast and Liberty.
    “Our women have made tremendous strides in training since our last competition in November, and his meet with Florida Gulf Coast, Liberty University, and the University of North Dakota will be an opportunity to see how we perform against the best competition within the conference,” said Head Coach Nathan Kellogg.
    Last time out in their only November meet, the Eagles’ finished second of nine teams at the Wingate Frenzy. Sara Meisenhelder finished first in the 1 and 3-Meter Dive with scores of 241.65 and 240.80 respectively. Georgia Southern also received a first place finish from Kristen Bates in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:04.04.
    Saturday, the Eagles' focus is on preparing for the CCSA Championships when they compete against last year's championship number one and two in Florida Gulf Coast and Liberty.
    "We are looking forward to getting into the race prep phase of our season. We have dual meets five consecutive weekends and our focus is to prepare and fine-tune our performances leading into the CCSA Championships in February,” Kellogg said.

GSU to host softball camps
    Georgia Southern softball will hold a set of camps this January for youngsters aged 7 through high school senior.
    Each camp is hosted by the coaching staff at Georgia Southern at the Eagle Softball Field in Statesboro.
    The first camp is an all skills camp on Saturday, Jan. 12. It is a clinic designed to cover mechanics, skills, and dozens of drills to help improve play at the plate and in the field and will cover all aspects of the game. The participants will be divided based on age and ability so that everyone will get the most out of the clinic.
    On Sunday, Jan. 27, the Eagles will hold specialized clinics covering defense, hitting as well as pitching and catching. Players will need to choose their focus upon registration for the session. For more information about these clinics, please follow the link to the camp page.
    For more information about Georgia Southern Softball camps, visit the Georgia Southern camps page at: https://georgiasouthernsoftballcamps.com/.
    Anyone interested in attending Georgia Southern Softball camps can also contact Coach Smith at (912) 478-1501 or via e-mail at adriannasmith@georgiasouthern.edu.

    If you have a score or story to report, please call the sports desk at (912) 489-9408 or email myogus@statesboroherald.com