In a game with nine lead changes and seven tie scores, La Salle had the final rally to claim a 76-68 win over Georgia State in Saturday's Holiday & Hoops finale at the GSU Sports Arena.

Georgia State (5-4) led from 16:30 to play at 44-42 and were still up 60-56 with six minutes to go. But, La Salle had one last rally and tied the game at 63 with 4:17 to go. The Explorers (7-4) made six of the final eight shots of the game and 9 of 10 free throws to claim the victory.

Freshman Makeba Ponder had a career-best 22 points in 28 minutes in her second career start, while senior center Brittany Logan dominated with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

La Salle got 20 points from forward Micahya Owens and 12 points off the bench from post player Indigo Dickens.

Visiting La Salle started strong, breaking from a 10-10 tie at 15:00 with a 13-2 run to make it 23-12 at 11:47. The Explorers hit 8 of their first 13 shots and four of their first five 3-point shots, while not committing a turnover. La Salle led by 11 points three more times, the last at 37-26 with 6:19 in the half when host Georgia State went on a 12-1 run to finish the half and tie the game at 38 at halftime.

The game was tied twice early in the second half, the last at 42 at 16:50, when GSU gained the lead for the next 10-plus minutes.

The battle of the boards went Georgia State's way in the first half (23-16) but La Salle gained an advantage in the second half with a 25-14 board lead that included 10 offensive rebounds to finish with a 41-37 rebound advantage.

"We started missing shots at the wrong time," coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. "La Salle played well and started the game on fire but we got more aggressive and fought back and got control. Our defense was not as good today and we have to rely on good defense to win. I'm learning that this team won't quite and will keep fighting back. We've played a lot of close games and give pretty good effort and compete to the end."

The defense coach Baldwin-Tener spoke of was averaging almost 10 steals a game, but had just one steal tonight and forced just nine turnovers, season lows.

NOTEBOOK:

• Georgia State concludes the non-conference portion at 5-4 and begins the 20-game Sun Belt Conference slate on Dec. 30 in the GSU Sports Arena vs. UL Monroe.
• Point guard and 1,000-point scorer Alisha Andrews missed her fourth game with her team rules suspension and should return for the Dec. 30 game.
• Brittany Logan had a third consecutive double-double game and finishes the nine non-conference games with 11.6 points per game and 9.8 rebounds. Logan was a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line tonight.
  
• Makeba Ponder has scored 21, 16, 17 and now 22 in the last four games to up her season average to 12.8 points per game. That's really only half of what she averaged last year in leading the state of Georgia in scoring and 3-point baskets. She is 26 of 53 outside the 3-point arc (49.1).
• Kayla Nolan leads the team in scoring with 13.0 points a game. Her next basket will give her 750 career points.
• Ashley Watson leads the team with 34 assists and just 14 turnovers (+20).

ALL-CLASSIC TEAM

Most Valuable Player: Quiera Lampkins, Ohio University

All-Classic Five

Massachusetts: Rashida Timbilla

La Salle: Micahya Owens

La Salle: Amy Griffin

Georgia State: Makeba Ponder

Georgia State: Brittany Logan