The Sports Inquirer

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

Making nine of its first 10 shots, Georgia State jumped out to a 22-4 lead in seven minutes and rolled to an 82-54 Sun Belt Conference win over Georgia Southern Thursday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

GSU (9-12, 4-8) made four 3-point baskets in the opening run and end 9 of 20 outside the 3-point arc on the evening.

Leading the Georgia State onslaught was freshman Makeba Ponder with 20 points, her fifth game with 20 or more this year, as she returned from a two-game injury in grand style. Point guard Alisha Andrews was the catalyst with the first two 3-pointers of the game en route to 16 points and five steals.

Georgia Southern (4-16, 1-10) made its only run of the evening (10-2) to close to nine at 33-24 with 3:07 in the half. But, Ponder hit two more treys and State went into halftime with a 41-24 lead over Southern.

In the second half, Georgia State opened with a 13-3 burst, including two treys by Andrews, and it was 54-27 at 17:10 and it was never in doubt after that.

Georgia State shot 55.2 percent in the first half (16 of 29) and hit the identical number in the second half to finish 32 of 58 for the game. The Panthers controlled the boards with a 36-25 margin. Georgia State’s defense made nine steals and held Georgia Southern to 38 percent shooting (21 of 55).

Georgia State improves to 3-4 on the road and moves on to play at South Alabama on Saturday.