A big run by each team cancelled out the other, and in the end, Charleston made its free throws.

The game was tied until 2 minutes, 26 seconds remained, but the Cougars closed out the game with four-straight free throws and Georgia Southern couldn’t answer on the other end as the Eagles lost, 65-60, Saturday at Hanner Fieldhouse.

"For so much of the game, we made the plays we work on every day," GSU coach Chris Vozab said. "For so much of the game, when they’d take something away, we stayed within our offense to make something happen."

The Eagles went 3 for 6 from the line in the game’s final minute.

Charleston (10-12, 6-7 Southern Conference) took its first second-half lead on a pair of Cathryn Hardy free throws to make it 53-52.

Georgia Southern (4-18, 3-10) got the lead right back on a 3-pointer by Anna Claire Knight. Minutes earlier, when Charleston tied it at 48, Knight gave the Eagles a cushion with a 3 from a MiMi DuBose dish.

An offensive put-back by Charleston’s Latisha Harris gave the Cougars the lead for the second time in the second half, 59-57, with 3:07 remaining. The Eagles led by as many as nine in the second half.

Harris grabbed 10 rebounds and scored eight points.

The Eagles missed shots on their next two trips down the court.

With GSU trailing, 61-59, Knight battled for an offensive rebound and took an elbow to the face, handing Latisha Harris a technical foul. Jordi Cook made one of the two free throws, and Charleston extended its lead to 63-59 on a pair of Jillian Brown free throws.

Knight missed 34 seconds of action while an injury from the foul was tended to.

"You want to have her out there, for sure," Vozab said. "I thought the whole game, when Anna Claire did come out, Jordi did a great job coming off the bench. I would have liked to have that one possession back before (Knight) got hurt — that’s where I thought we had a good open look we didn’t take advantage of."

"I don’t know how good I would have been at that point if I was on the court," Knight added, "but I wish I was out there trying to help out."

Knight scored 14 points and made four 3s in the game. Meredyth Frye also added 14 points.

Cook was 2 of 3 from behind the 3-point line in the game.

Danielle Spencer led GSU with 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.

She scored the last four points of the first half and six of the first eight second-half points.

"I did what I had to do to help the team try and win this game," Spencer said. "But we’ve got to fight for 40 minutes every night."

It was all about runs in the first half.

The Eagles made their first three shots, including 3s by DuBose and Alexis Sams, and pulled ahead, 21-14 with an 11-4 run powered by a Knight 3 and six early turnovers by the Cougars. Ronnesha Smith’s jumper gave the Eagles a seven-point edge.

Charleston snapped the GSU surge with three-straight steals and a long jump shot by Jillian Brown. The Eagles went scoreless for 4:30 while the Cougars went on a 13-0 run. A put-back by Christy Hewatt tied the game at 21, and a layup by Cathryn Hardy gave Charleston its first lead with 4:21 to go in the first half.

Brown and Hardy both finished with 11 points.

The GSU scoreless stretch came to an end with another Knight 3 off a Frye dish that cut the Charleston advantage to 27-24, and the Eagles closed the half on a 7-1 run. Four-straight points from Spencer, including a pair of free throws with 42.6 seconds to go in the half, led to a 28-28 halftime score.

Charleston’s Alyssa Frye led all scorers with 18 points.

The game was the first of a doubleheader in Hanner Fieldhouse, where GSU celebrated "Pack the House in Pink," an annual event that raises funds and awareness for breast cancer research.