ATLANTA –
Christeina Bryan and
Aniya Palmer each recorded career-highs and
Mikyla Tolivert joined the record-books as Georgia State topped LaGrange 93-51 at the GSU Convocation Center on Tuesday afternoon.
Making her third straight start, Bryan led all scorers with 19 points, which topped her previous high of 16 set in GSU's 78-72 win over Clemson on Saturday afternoon. The senior from Saint Thomas, Jamaica shot a career-best 8-of-11 from the field and at one point, scored 10 straight points for GSU to open the second quarter.
Aniya Palmer shot 5-of-9 from the field to score a career-high 10 points in 21 minutes.
Mya Williams added 14 points on 4-of-10 from three, and
Deasia Merrill just missed a double-double with nine points including a three-pointer that just beat the buzzer to end the game, and a team-high 10 rebounds with four blocks off the bench.
Mikyla Tolivert scored nine points with seven rebounds and joined the Panther annals with 12 assists, which is tied for ninth all-time by a Panther in a single game.
Crystal Henderson also scored nine points on 4-of-8 shooting with eight assists.
Coming off their big win over Clemson on Saturday, Georgia State (6-4) picked up where they left off and made 39 field goals on 30 assists in their final non-conference game of the season and held LaGrange to just 17-of-65 and 6-of-32 (18.8 percent) in the first half. The Panthers also forced 26 turnovers which led to 26 points in transition.
"I'm really proud of the girls to come out and play with a lot of focus," said GSU head coach
Gene Hill. "Obviously, it's the end of the semester and the last game before break, so you have a lot of distractions, and sometimes they seem to go on vacation before the game is over, but I really was proud of, after our big game (against Clemson) Saturday, to come out and really show a lot of focus and discipline, and really play the game for 40 minutes, play hard and everything. Looking forward to the second part of the season now. Every game is going to matter. We know it's going to be a lot tougher, so we've just got to build off these last two games and continue to get better each and every day."
GSU opened the game on an 11-2 run and never looked back, outscoring LaGrange 22-9 in the first quarter and 27-13 in the second to take a commanding 49-22 lead.
Up 71-46 after three, the Panthers padded their lead with 19 straight points to open the fourth and seal the game for good.
The Panthers open Sun Belt Conference play on the road at Troy on Saturday, December 19, at 4:30 p.m.