What you need to know:
* Georgia State won the first game of the Sun Belt Conference battle with in-state rival Georgia Southern with an 82-54 romp Thursday in Statesboro.
* Freshman Makeba Ponder returned after missing two games with an injury and poured in 20 points for the fifth time this season. PG Alisha Andrews starred with 16 points and 5 assists.
* The Panthers made 9 3-point baskets tonight, their fifth game with 9 or more this season.
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STATESBORO, GA. – Making nine of its first 10 shots, Georgia State jumped out to a 22-4 lead in seven minutes and rolled to an 82-54 Sun Belt Conference win over Georgia Southern Thursday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
GSU (9-12, 4-8) made four 3-point baskets in the opening run and ended 9 of 20 outside the 3-point arc on the evening.
Leading the Georgia State onslaught was freshman Makeba Ponder with 20 points, her fifth game with 20 or more this year, as she returned from a two-game injury in grand style. Point guard Alisha Andrews was the catalyst with the first two 3-pointers of the game en route to 16 points and five steals.
Georgia Southern (4—16, 1-10) made its only run of the evening (10-2) to close to nine at 33-24 with 3:07 in the half. But, Ponder hit two more treys and State went into halftime with a 41-24 lead over Southern.
In the second half, Georgia State opened with a 13-3 burst, including two treys by Andrews, and it was 54-27 at 17:10 and it was never in doubt after that.
Georgia State shot 55.2 percent in the first half (16 of 29) and hit the identical number in the second half to finish 32 of 58 for the game. The Panthers controlled the boards with a 36-25 margin. Georgia State's defense made nine steals and held Georgia Southern to 38 percent shooting (21 of 55).
"When you win, it usually means a lot of people did a lot of things to make that happen and we got lots of contributors tonight," coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. "A key I emphasized at halftime was to come back out and start the second half at 0-0 and make another early run and we did that. We had given up nine second-chance points in the first half and we talked about correcting that and only gave up three second-chance points in the second half."
Freshman forward Kennesha Nichols added 11 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists in 21 solid minutes. Forward Haley Gerrin started and produced seven points and seven rebounds in her 22 minutes. Gaby Moss started tonight and got seven early points and nine for the game in 17 minutes of action.Brittany Logan returned after a game's absence and had six rebounds and five points in 15 minutes.
"Yes, there is no doubt Makeba Ponder is a great shooter and we need her playing like she did tonight," coach added. "Having her back makes the whole team better.."
Georgia State traveled 13 players and all 13 played, with 10 scoring and two more who didn't score grabbed rebounds. This was GSU's 11th game with 70 or more points this year and fourth game over 80 points.
Georgia State improves to 3-4 on the road and moves on to play at South Alabama on Saturday.
