Georgia State women’s basketball drops season finale

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

Georgia State fell to No. 1 seed UALR 71-54 in the opening round of the Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Championship at Lakefront Arena Wednesday.

The Panthers had an 11-0 to close to 49-41 with 10:18 to play and were down nine at 54-45 with 8:26 to play, but UALR was able to pull away. GSU was down 63-52 with four minutes left as UALR closed on an 8-run to advance to the semifinals.

Georgia State (13-17) had three players finish in double figures. Senior center Brittany Logan led with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Alisha Andrews added 11 points with three 3-point baskets. Andrews ends her career with 201 3-pointers and is the only active player in the NCAA with 1,000 points, 300 assists, 300 steals, 300 rebounds and 200 3-point baskets. Freshman forward Kennesha Nichols added 10 points and five rebounds. Freshman Makeba Ponder made a 3-point basket to tie the school record for a season with 69 3-point baskets. Georgia State finished with a 34-29 rebound advantage.

UALR (26-4) is No. 3 in the NCAA in defense behind Connecticut and Chattanooga in allowing 50.4 points a game. They are among the national leaders in forcing 20.1 turnovers a game. Today, the Trojans forced 21 turnovers and turned those into 28 points. First-team all-conference guard Taylor Gault led UALR with 23 points. Guard Ka’Nesheia Cobbins was stellar with 5 of 5 shooting and 15 points to go with 10 assists. Point guard Alexius Dawn was a major factor with six 3-point baskets and 18 points.

“UALR’s defensive pressure causing 21 turnovers was the big factor in today’s game,” head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. “Their record, RPI and any rankings tell you how good they are and we couldn’t get stops in the second half. I did tell my team I was proud of their fight as they cut the lead down to eight points and kept battling all game long. UALR had to play its top players 40, 39 and 39 minutes in order to earn this win, so that tells you how they were fighting, too.”

Georgia State did have a 32-30 advantage with points in the paint as they matched the Trojans front line. And, the Panthers had 14 offensive rebounds to claim the 34-29 rebound advantage.