Women's Basketball 2/18/2022 8:44:00 PM

Panthers Play at South Alabama Saturday

GEORGIA STATE at SOUTH ALABAMA
Feb. 19 • 4 p.m. ET • Mitchell Center • Mobile, Ala.

TV: ESPN+

THE TIPOFF

• Georgia State (8-14, 2-8 Sun Belt) continues its season-ending road swing Saturday at South Alabama (8-14, 2-7 Sun Belt) in a 4 p.m. ET contest at the Mitchell Center. The game will air on ESPN+.

• After playing seven out of eight games at home from, Georgia State is now finishing the regular season with four straight road games (at Troy, South Alabama, Louisiana, ULM).

• Georgia State has won four of the last five games against South Alabama, including a 72-66 overtime win in Atlanta on Jan. 27. GSU 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 had 18 points and a career-high nine rebounds, while Sadler was 6-for-7 from the field and scored eight of her 12 points in the overtime.

• The Panthers are coming off a 67-56 loss at Sun Belt leader Troy. Georgia State led by as many as eight points in the first half and were within three points with seven minutes to play before Troy pulled away. Ashley Foster led GSU with 14 points, including four 3-pointers.

• 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.

• Ashley Foster leads GSU in scoring (11.6 ppg) and assists (39) and is second in rebounding (3.7 rpg) and steals (28). She has reached double figure scoring 13 times this season, including a career-high 19 points at Florida to open the season.

• Kamryn Dziak leads the team with 36 3-pointers this season, ranking fourth in the Sun Belt with 1.6 treys per game and seventh in 3-point percentage (.336). The junior from Amherst, Ohio, has 99 3-pointers for her career, good for 10th place in school history.

• Alex Gitchenko, the freshman from Israel, has averaged 6.3 points and 4.5 rebounds and over the last six 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 seven 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. SOUTH ALABAMA

• Georgia State has won four of the last five games against the Jaguars, including a 72-66 overtime victory earlier this season in Atlanta.

• In 2020-21, the teams split a pair of games in Mobile as Georgia State won 47-41, followed by the Jaguars' 58-46 victory. The Panthers then swept two games at the GSU Sports Arena, 60-45 and 76-64.

• South Alabama leads the series 12-10, including a 10-8 advantage since the teams began playing as Sun Belt foes in 2013-14.

• Head coach Gene Hill is 4-4 vs. South Alabama.

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