Final Regular Season Weekend Begins Thursday at Louisiana

GEORGIA STATE at LOUISIANA
Thursday, Feb. 24 • 7 p.m. ET • Cajun Dome • Lafayette, La.

COVERAGE: ESPN+

THE TIPOFF

• Coming off an overtime road victory at South Alabama, Georgia State (9-14, 3-8 Sun Belt) concludes the regular season with a road trip to Louisiana, beginning with a Thursday game at the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. The contest tips at 7 p.m. ET at the Cajun Dome and will air on ESPN+.

• After playing seven out of eight games at home from, Georgia State is now playing the third of four straight road games to finish the regular season with four straight road games.

• Georgia State is coming off a 60-57 overtime victory at South Alabama. Freshmen led the Panthers in overtime. With GSU trailing 57-54 and less than a minute to play, Alyssa Phillip grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back with 45 seconds left. Then Mikyla Tolivert, who had 13 points and six rebounds in the game, made a driving layup with six seconds left to to put the Panthers up 58-57. Then Nyla Jean drew a foul and sank two free throws with four seconds to play to seal the 60-57 victory.

• Taniyah Worth also scored 13 points against the Jaguars, including 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. She is averaging 9.8 points over the last four contests.

• That was the second straight overtime win over South Alabama for the Panthers, who won 72-66 in overtime 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.

• 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 (11.1 ppg), rebounding (3.8 rpg) and assists (39) and is second in steals (29). 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 37 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, made her 100th career 3-pointer last game at South Alabama, good for 10th place in school history.

• Alex Gitchenko, the freshman from Israel, has started 15 games and is averaging 3.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. 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 eight 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. LOUISIANA

• Georgia State and Louisiana are meeting for the first time since Feb. 13, 2020, when the Panthers earned a 52-43 victory at Lafayette, La. Moriah Taylor led the Panthers with 12 points, including three 3-pointers.

• Georgia State has won two of the last three against the Ragin' Cajuns.

• The series began in 2008-09, and Louisiana leads 10-4.

• Head coach Gene Hill is 2-2 vs. Louisiana.

Print Friendly Version