LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - UALR held off a scrappy and tired Georgia State team, 64-58, Wednesday night at the Stephens Center.
The Panthers, who left Atlanta Monday and flew to Memphis to try to get to Little Rock through the ice and snow of Arkansas, finally got to Little Rock about two hours before the game and got off the bus to play. During the game, leading scorer Kendra Long fouled out and logged only 18 minutes. Top point guard Alisha Andrews got hurt and couldn't finish the game. But, the team was still only down three points with a minute to play.
In Atlanta, GSU came from 13 points down in the second half to win 61-59. Tonight, they were down 11 points at 17:30 and closed back to two points at 51-49 with five minutes still to go, even without Long able to play. When Brittany Logan made two free throws with 55.4 seconds to make it 60-57, it was still anyone's game to win.
UALR's "hot-potato" possession with an offensive rebound saw Taylor Ford get the ball at the top of the key with four seconds on the shot clock and fire up a must-shoot bomb that went in with 25 seconds left to secure the win.
Center Brittany Logan led Georgia State with 16 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes as she had three fouls early and played cautiously for a while. Long, GSU's leading scorer, had 10 points after starting the game with back-to-back 3-pointers and having eight points in seven minutes as it looked like it might be her night. But foul trouble spoiled that. Ashley Watson added 10 points for the Panthers.
Georgia State controlled the boards to post a 38-31 rebound advantage. That means the Panthers have only been at a rebound deficit one time in the past 12 games. GSU was careless with the ball without Long and Andrews and had 24 turnovers that led to 22 UALR points.
"The effort was there, the team battled the whole game, but we didn't get what we came for (a win), so it wasn't a good night," coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. "We got the early lead, got down double-digits, then battled and fought until the final horn sounded. UALR plays great in this building and has only lost to LSU this year here, so it is tough to get a win here. They made that big 3-pointer there at the end with the shot clock winding down and that was huge. Brittany Logan did a nice job again, despite the fouls. But, our whole team did a prettty good job with giving what they had despite two days on a bus."
Georgia State's travel-weary schedule saw them leave last Tuesday for two games in Texas and get back into Atlanta on Sunday. Then, they left for Memphis early Monday afternoon and a one-hour walk through practice. The Monday-Wednesday was spent in travel trying to get to UALR with no practice time anywhere in there. And, there was homework from missed classes to tend to.
UALR improves to 11-6 in the Sun Belt and 16-11 overall. Taylor Gault led the Trojans with 17 points, while Shanity James added 14 points, all in the second half.
GSU slips into a tie for fifth-place now with Troy heading into the last regular season game.
Georgia State returns to Atlanta for the season finale on Saturday at noon on Kendra Long's senior day game. Her ceremony will take place 10 minutes before the tip.
