It was almost too good to be true.

The College of Charleston women’s team clawed its way out of an 11-point first half deficit to take a 3-point lead with four minutes to play in the game against Georgia Southern in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Tournament.

The game came down to a rebounding battle as Brooke Kotcella pulled down her ninth board to pass it around to a wide-open Tonia Gerty.

Gerty sunk the 3-pointer to give Charleston a 56-54 lead with less than 30 seconds to go.

Fifteen seconds later, Jessica Geiger put the Eagles on top with a 3-pointer that sealed the win and sent the College home early with a 57-56 loss at the Bojangles Arena in Charlotte.

“To play such a great game against Georgia Southern, we’re disappointed not in the loss itself but just not to be in a position to advance at this point,” head coach Nancy Wilson said.

Kotcella scored a game-high 18 points and finished with nine rebounds, seven of which were offensive boards.

Senior Ericka Williams scored 14 points and gave the Cougars the lead on three separate tiebreakers during the final six minutes.

Kotcella tied the game at 46-46 with a free throw before a Jade Hughes steal led to a Williams’ layup and the first Cougar lead of the game. Geiger then tied it up with a pair of free throws. Williams then hit another jumper before Krista Tate tied the game again with two more free throws.

Williams hit her second 3-pointer of the game for a 53-50 lead before the Eagles hit true straight buckets. That’s when Kotcella took over under the basket.

The game ended in a fashion that Wilson expected. Her team had tied the season series against the Eagles and knew it was going to be a battle.

“I felt like we pushed them to the wire and wish we could have gotten the win,” said Wilson, whose team ended the year at 19-11 overall and 13-7 in regular season conference play. 

During the first half, the Cougars used a four-minute drought by the Eagles to cut GSU’s lead to three with under two minutes to play. At that point, GSU went out on a 6-3 run to finish 35-29 at the half.

J’Lisia Ogburn led the Eagles with 12 points and Geiger and Jamie Navarro each finished with 11 points.

It was the final game for a team that lost in triple-overtime in last year’s conference championship game and the final game for six seniors.

Williams said that although she was upset with the loss, she’s proud to have been part of a program that has continued to improve over the years.

“Our program, we built it stronger,” she said. “We just want to keep it up for the years to come.”