The Sports Inquirer

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

Thanks to a career high 19 points, plus 16 rebounds and three blocks from senior Brittany Logan, the Georgia State women’s basketball team defeated Tennessee Tech 72-60 at the Sports Arena Saturday afternoon.

Georgia State’s defense was a factor as the Panthers held TTU to 29.4 percent from the field (20 of 68), forced 15 turnovers and made nine steals, while owning a 43-38 rebound advantage.GSU limited TTU (1-7) to 24.2 percent in the first half in building a 27-17 halftime lead.

Early in the game, Georgia State grew a 8-7 lead eight minutes into the game into a 20-9 lead with a 12-2 run over a five-minute span as TTU made just 3 of 15 field goals. Logan had the final five points of that run.

In the second hafl, GSU (4-3) grew a 33-24 lead at 16:10 into a 15-point, 39-24 margin at 13:46. The host Panthers would grow that lead into an 18-point lead at 50-32 with 8:39 left. The Panthers led by 17 at 64-47 with 3:30 to play. The host Panthers shot 55 percent in the second half (11 of 20).

Georgia State’s key stats for the day included:

• Logan’s 19 points topping her two 17-point games last year.
• Logan’s 16 rebounds being one shy of her bests of 17, twice last year.
• Freshman Makeba Ponder adding 16 points off the bench to follow her 21 points in Sunday’s game. Two more 3-pointers made upped her team-high total to 18 made.
• Senior Kayla Nolan scoring 12 points, two below her season average, with four assists.
• GSU Improving to 4-0 this year when holding the opponent to 60 points or less.
• Point guard Ashley Watson subbed a second-straight game for Alisha Andrews (team rules) and had seven points and four assists.

What did head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener think of today’s play?:

• “We can be proud of the first-half defense and allowing just 17 points and we built a win from that,” she started. “A lot of people contributed significantly in today’s win.
• “I can’t be pleased with the abundance of turnovers we made and the free throws we missed, though, as that was kind of uncharacteritic of us,” she added.
• “Brittany Logan did a fantastic job on the glass and took control in the paint,” coach said.
• “I think we took shots we wanted to take and had them take shots that we wanted them to take, so that helped,” she added.”We scored 38 points in the paint and those shots are a lot easier to make.”

Logan knows her keys, too. “It starts on defense and the offense will come,” she said. “I think rebounding is what I need to do first and foremost. It is important to win on our home court and it was necessary to stop the losing of the last couple games, especially the pair by two points. I think we re-focused a little and got ourselves started in the right direction again.”