Georgia Southern and UNC Greensboro are far from strangers.
    They’ve already played twice this season, and today’s 9 a.m. matchup in Charleston, S.C., will mark the third straight year the Lady Eagles and the Lady Spartans have met in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference basketball tournament.
    “(Eagle coach) Rusty (Cram) and I know our styles, so this is a question of who can perform when push comes to shove,” said UNCG coach Lynne Agee, whose team is the No. 4 seed with a 20-9 overall record and a 13-5 mark in league play. “This is whether you can throw a surprise at somebody or whether you can execute better down the stretch – that’s the way it is on every one of these games on the bracket. A tournament creates another whole set of emotions, mental toughness and just flat-out putting the ball in the hole in a coliseum.”
    The Spartans have won six of their last seven games and are led by senior Jasmine Byrd (15.5 points a game) and junior Kristen Boone (10.7).
    “They are overall just a very talented team athletic-wise,” Cram said. “They are just super, super athletes and a good basketball team – well coached. We’ll have to play well to stay on the floor with them.”
    Although it has been an up and down year for the fifth-seeded Eagles (12-17, 7-11), Georgia Southern traditionally fares well in the tournament, advancing as far the championship game in 2005 before falling in double overtime to Western Carolina. Georgia Southern has won at least one game in the tourney five of the last six years.
    “We do tend to play pretty decent in the tournament, we just can’t finish the tournament and win that championship game,” Cram said. “But there’s no secret – you just play for this time of the year. This is that third season that everybody talks about. You play strong schedules in the beginning to get ready for conference. You try to survive the conference wars to come in with a good seed, then hope your brackets are right. Then you just go in there, you get your kids up, do what you can to get them to play hard and focus on the job at hand – a three-game season.”
    UNCG beat the Eagles twice this season – an 80-55 win in Greensboro, N.C. and a 68-60 victory in Statesboro. Basketball coaches say it’s tough to beat a team three times in the same year, and Agee said she’d have to agree.
“The numbers game is always there,” she said. “The fact that we beat them twice gives them a great deal of motivation. Hopefully we’re not complacent with that. It is a concern of mine.”
    Agree said she’s also heedful of Georgia Southern’s guards, a talented group led by junior Tiffany Brown’s 14.9 points per game.
    “I don’t want to worry about guarding their guards,” she said. “But that’s who we have to guard – I can’t trade them out. (Ashley) Melson, (Ashley) Rivens, Tiffany Brown – my goodness. You’ve got 3-point shooters, you’ve got people who handle the basketball and are very savvy. Their perimeter game is clearly a concern. I know she’s a freshman, but I think their point guard, Carolyn Whitney is excellent. Their post game against us is also clearly a concern and their size. We are going to have to really box out and be physical and strong to produce in the paint against them. Georgia Southern is an inside-out game and a running game. We are similar styles.”
    Beginning this year, all of the women’s tournament games will be held at the North Charleston Coliseum instead of on-campus at The Citadel. Having the men’s and women’s teams play the entire tournament under one roof meant a lot to the league coaches, even though 9 a.m. games were a concession that had to be made.
    “I definitely should compliment the Southern Conference for giving us the ability to say that our basketball programs are the same and will be treated the same,” Agee said.  “I think the conference has really stepped up and made a statement about the value and the importance of their men’s and women’s basketball programs by putting us together like this. We are all excited about it.”
    The winner of today’s game advances to the semifinals to face No.1 Western Carolina Friday at noon.   

    Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.