Seniors Honored at Saturday's Final Home Game vs. App State

Final Women's Basketball at the GSU Sports Arena

GEORGIA STATE vs. APPALACHIAN STATE
Feb. 12 • 2 p.m. • GSU Sports Arena

TICKETS: GeorgiaStateSports.com/Tix
COVERAGE: ESPN+

THE TIPOFF

• Georgia State (8-12, 2-6 Sun Belt) plays its final home game of the season, hosting Appalachian State (11-10, 5-3 Sun Belt) Saturday at 2 p.m. for Senior Day at the GSU Sports Arena. The game will air on ESPN+.

• Four seniors will be honored at Saturday's game as they play their final home game: Elexus Bell, Ashley Foster, Tehya Lyons and Taniyah Worth.

• Saturday's game also marks the final women's basketball game in the GSU Sports Arena, the program's home since its inception in 1975, except for one season at The Omni in 1978-79. Next season, the Georgia State men's and women's basketball programs will move into the brand new Georgia State University Convocation Center.

• Georgia State is playing at home for the seventh time in its last eight games. The Panthers have played just one road game (Feb. 5 at Georgia Southern) since Jan. 8 but after today, they will finish the regular season with four straight road games (at Troy, South Alabama, Louisiana, ULM).

• The Panthers are coming off a 69-62 loss to Coastal Carolina Thursday. Georgia State fought back from a 15-point second-half deficit to pull within 65-61 with the ball and just under two minutes to play, but the Chanticleers were able to seal the game at the free throw line. Ashley Foster and Taniyah led GSU with 12 points each.

• Georgia State and App State, which is coming off an 82-80 overtime loss at Georgia Southern, are meeting for the only time this season after their Jan. 6 game in Boone was canceled due to COVID protocols.

• After downing Georgia Southern on a last-second shot and then defeating South Alabama in overtime, the Panthers have lost three straight close games. GSU fell to Troy and at Georgia Southern, but in both losses, the game was tied in the final six minutes, and in Thursday's loss to Coastal Carolina, the Panthers had the ball down by only four points in the final two minutes.

• Deasia Merrill's last-second shot lifted Georgia State to a 58-56 over Georgia Southern. The Panthers the entire way until a 3-pointer by the Eagles tied the game at 56-all with 26 seconds left. With the clock running down, Georgia State point guard Tehya Lyons found Kamryn Dziak in the corner. Dziak missed the 3-pointer, but Merrill ripped the rebound away from Georgia Southern's Mya Burns, and her short jumper from the baseline was good for the victory.

• In the 72-66 overtime win against South Alabama, Georgia State led most of the game before the Jaguars forced overtime with a 3-pointer with just one second left in regulation. But the Panthers quickly regained control in the extra period as Hannah Sadler (8 points), Alex Gitchenko (5 points) and Tehya Lyons (4 points) combined to outscore the Jags 17-11.

• Ashley Foster leads GSU in scoring (11.3 ppg) and rebounding (4.1 rpg), and she is second on the team in assists (2.0 pg) and steals (1.5 pg). She has reached double figure scoring 10 times this season, including a career-high 19 points at Florida to open the season.

• Kamryn Dziak leads the team with 31 3-pointers this season, ranking sixth in the Sun Belt in 3-point percentage (.341) and treys per game (1.6). The junior from Amherst, Ohio, has 94 3-pointers for her career, good for 10th place in school history.

• Alex Gitchenko, the freshman from Israel, has averaged 7.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists over the last four games.

• Gitchenko's mother, Oksana, was in attendance for the first time for Thursday's game vs. Coastal Carolina, in which Alex tied her career high with nine points. Oksana is a former Olympic basketball standout who helped Ukraine to a fourth-place finish at the 1996 Centennial Games in Atlanta.

• After using eight different starting lineups in the first 14 games, Georgia State has started the same quintet for the last five games: Ashley Foster, Kamryn Dziak, Ciara Smith, Alex Gitchenko and Deasia Merrill. For the season, 10 different players have started at least one game. No Panther has started every game, and only two (Kamryn Dziak and Alyssa Phillip) have played in every game.

SERIES NOTES vs. APPALACHIAN STATE

• Georgia State and Appalachian State are meeting for the only time this season after their scheduled game Jan. 6 at Boone was canceled.

• The two teams split four games in 2020-21. Oddly, each team won swept on the opponent's home court. App State won 71-68 and 66-56 in Atlanta, but the Panthers answered by winning 72-62 and 50-48 in Boone.

• The Mountaineers lead the series 10-8, including 8-7 in the Sun Belt Conference era.

• Head coach Gene Hill is 3-5 against App State.

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