Road Swing Begins Thursday at Sun Belt Leader Troy

GEORGIA STATE at TROY
Feb. 17 • 7 p.m. ET • Trojan Arena • Troy, Ala.

THE TIPOFF

• Georgia State (8-13, 2-7 Sun Belt) hits the road to face Sun Belt Conference leader Troy (18-7, 9-2 Sun Belt) Thursday at 7 p.m. ET at Trojan Arena. The game will air on ESPN+.

• Georgia State has played seven of its last eight games at home, but now the Panthers finish the regular season with four straight road games (at Troy, South Alabama, Louisiana, ULM). The game at Troy is GSU's second road game, and first time leaving the state of Georgia, since Jan. 8.

• After downing Georgia Southern on a last-second shot and then defeating South Alabama in overtime, the Panthers have lost four straight close games:

>Troy (60-56) - Deasia Merrill's basket tied the game at 53-all with 2:43 left, but Troy scored six straight points and held on for the win.

>At Georgia Southern (71-61) - GSU tied the game at 51-all with five minutes, left, again on a bucket by Deasia Merrill, but scored the next seven points and went on to win.

>Coastal Carolina (69-62) - The Panthers fought back from a 15-point deficit in the second half and had the ball down by only four points in the final two minutes, but Coastal sealed the win at the free throw line.

>Appalachian State (84-78 OT) - Georgia State led by four with two minutes to play, and then Ashley Foster's driving layup tied the game with 4.7 seconds left in regulation, but App State won in overtime.

• 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 (3.8 rpg) and assists (37) and she is second in steals (27 pg). She has reached double figure scoring 12 times this season, including a career-high 19 points at Florida to open the season.

• Kamryn Dziak leads the team with 35 3-pointers this season, ranking fifth in the Sun Belt in 3-point percentage (.350) and treys per game (1.7). The junior from Amherst, Ohio, has 98 3-pointers for her career, good for 10th place in school history.

• Alex Gitchenko, the freshman from Israel, has averaged 6.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists over the last five games.

• Gitchenko's mother, Oksana, was in attendance for the first time for the Feb. 10 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 15 games, Georgia State has started the same quintet for the last six 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. TROY

• Georgia State holds a 25-17 lead in the series with Troy, which began in 1975-76.

• Troy has won four in a row in the series including the first meeting this season, 60-56 in Atlanta on Jan. 29. Georgia State's last win over the Trojans was in 2018-19, when the Panthers swept the season series, 84-80 (home) and 85-70 (away).

• The teams were previously conference foes in the TAAC/Atlantic Sun Conference from 1997-98 through 2004-05. Georgia State dominated the series in that era, 16-3, including 13 straight wins over the Trojans.

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