ATLANTA ? Drexel shot 56 percent in the opening half to build a lead on Georgia State and hung on for a 63-48 regular season final game win Thursday at the Sports Arena on campus.

Georgia State (8-21, 5-13) finishes as the No. 10 seed in the 12-team CAA Championships and will face No. 7 Wililam and Mary at Noon on Thursday at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del.

Tonight, the Panthers got 12 points each from Chandrica Smith and Traci Haltiwanger. On Senior Night, the Panthers' lone graduate, Vatai Smith, grabbed six rebounds, scored four points and blocked a shot.

Drexel (18-11, 13-5) will finish in the top four and earn a first round bye at the CAA Championships. Tonight, the Dragons got 59 of their 63 points from three players as Narissa Suber scored 24 points with six treys, Gabriela Marginean added 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting and Jasmina Rosseel hit 5-of-9 for 12 points.

Georgia State held a 44-34 rebound advantage with 23 offensive rebounds tonight. Shay Rawls, Chandra Harris and Brittany Hollins each had seven boards.

The visiting Dragons made their first six shots of the game, including two three-point baskets to jump out to a 14-2 lead in four minutes. State rallied back to 21-13 at 8:50, but Marginean's two baskets and another by Suber answered that. Drexel led 35-20 at halftime as the Dragons shot 15-of-27 for 56 percent and State just 8-of-31 for 25.8 in that opening period.

In the second half, three more treys by Drexel built a largest lead of 23 points at 13:54 before State rallied down to 13 points at 59-46 with 2:30 to play.

“We battled hard tonight and, quite simply, if we had made some of those open shots, we'd have been in position to challenge for a win,” Coach Lea Henry said. “Drexel shoots well and are a good team, but we did a lot of good things except make our baskets.
We will be comfortable going into next week's tournament because there is no pressure on us. We can go in loose and play hard with everything to gain. We are dong a lot of things better now than we were a month ago, so maybe we can get some wins up there.”

2008 Aeropostale CAA Women's Basketball Tournament

Thursday

Noon - No. 10 Georgia State vs. No. 7 William and Mary

2:30 - No. 11 George Mason vs. No. 6 Northeastern

5:00 - No. 8 UNC Wilmington vs. No. 9 Delaware

7:30 - No. 12 Hofstra vs. No. 5 Towson

Friday

Noon - 10-7 winner vs. No. 2 James Madison

2:30 - 11-6 winner vs. No. 3 VCU

5:00 - 9-8 winner vs. No. 1 ODU

7:30 - 12-5 winner vs. No. 4 Drexel