Richmond, Va. (Jan. 13) ? Georgia State dropped a 63-48 Colonial Athletic Association game to first-place Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday afternoon at the Siegel Center.
Coming out of the locker room with a 29-25 halftime advantage, host VCU opened the first 10 minutes of the second half with a 21-6 run to take control. Georgia State finished by outscoring VCU 17-13 in the final 10 minutes, but that initial 10-minute run was the difference. The Rams entered the game No. 8 in the nation in points allowed per game (52).
Georgia State (3-11) was led by junior guard Brittany Hollins with 17 points. Sophomore forward Shay Rawls added a double-double effort with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
VCU improves to 13-1 on the season and 3-0 in the CAA and ups its home court winning streak to 11 straight. Today, Krsytal Vaughn led in scoring with 18 points. Radiskava Bachvarova added 12 points. Quanitra Hollingsworth
came on strong after a scoreless first half with 13 points in the second half and five rebounds.
In the first half, host VCU jumped out to a quick 8-3 lead at 14:48, but the visitors from Atlanta rallied to take the lead at 11-10 at 8:02 after back-to-back baskets by Hollins.
A trey by Monica Mann gave State a 16-14 lead at 5:52. The game was tied three times thereafter at 16, 19 and 22 after a trio of three-point baskets by Georgia State. VCU hit three baskets in the closing two minutes to take a 29-25 advantage into the locker room.Vaughn had 15 points in the opening half for VCU and Hollins nine in the opening period.
"Our effort was there, but the shots just did not fall for us," Coach Lea Henry noted after the team's 38.6 shooting percentage. "Those will eventually fall if we keep playing this hard and stay focused. Opening with the top three teams in the league has been a big challenge and I think we will playing better as we go through the next 15 league games."
Georgia State, after playing the top three teams in the CAA to start the conference season, returns to Atlanta for a Thursday night home game with CAA rival William and Mary at the Sports Arena.
