Georgia State's women's basketball team is back on the practice court preparing for the upcoming 2016-17 season. The Panthers have 11 veterans who have played in a combined 596 collegiate games coming to Decatur St. this winter.
“I'm excited about our depth this season,” head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. “This has been the best offseason I've seen here at GSU. Our comradery, focus, dedication, and competiveness is at an all-time high.”
Baldwin-Tener highlighted multiple players at each position, showcasing how versatile Georgia State could be this year. The Panthers return five forwards and five guards, but it hasn't just been the Panther veterans contributing to the team's success this offseason. Freshmen guards Jada Lewis and Jaylyn Harrison have brought high energy and competition to workouts and practices and transfer Tiffany Holston brings three seasons of college basketball experience.
Baldwin-Tener wants the team to focus on a handful of areas to improve as the season quickly approaches.
“Probably one of the biggest things we want to improve on is our fitness. We want to play with high intensity for the whole game,” Baldwin-Tener said. “I also want to see our team improve in the passing game. We want to make split-second decisions , but be smart with where we're passing the ball.”
POST PLAYERS (7)
Haley Gerrin (6.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg) missed much of last summer and the start of the 2015-16 season with injuries, but has had a great offseason of health in 2016-17 to head into her final year. She's started 44 of her 73 GSU games with 11 double-figure scoring games and a top game of 23 points. Gerrin's a 48.3 percent career shooter and topped 70 percent from the free throw line for two seasons.
Alaysia Mitchell (7.3 ppg, 5.0 rpg) played all 29 games and started 17 as a junior at GSU after transferring up from junior college. She led the team in rebounding and had top games of 12, 10 and 10. She had 10 double-figure scoring games as a junior after 20 double-figure games in JUCO, while having a double-double game vs. Troy in 2015-16.
Astaja Tyghter (8.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg) finished second on the team in both scoring and rebounding as a freshman as she had 10 double-figure games with a top game of 21 points at Georgia Southern. She also led the team in steals per game (1.8). Her rebounding included eight games with seven or more rebounds. And, she showed her passing skills with 34 assists, which also put her second on the team. She started 21 of the 25 games she played.
Kennesha Nichols (3.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg) logged time in all 29 games and made four starts. She has nine double-figure scoring games along with six games with nine or more rebounds. A vet of 59 games with 22 starts, Nichols also has 28 blocked shots, including 13 in 2015-16.
Tiffany Holston (14.4 ppg, 10.7 rpg) was the SIAC Player of the Year in 2015-16 at Albany State and will join GSU as a graduate student to play this season. For three seasons in D-II, Holston scored 1,135 points (13.7) and produced 898 rebounds (10.8). She has 66 career double-figure scoring games and 52 double-figure rebounding games. She also has 78 career blocked shots and had been the SIAC Defensive Player of the Year earlier in her career.
Taleah Williams (1.2 ppg, 1.1 rpg) played 21 games in her first season at GSU in 2015-16. As a sophomore in junior college, she averaged 9.3 ppg with four games with 20 or more points. She averaged 7.4 rebounds per game with top games of 15, 14, 13 and 12 boards in producing eight double-double games as sophomore.
Shaquanda Miller-McCray (10.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 8.0 blocks per game was the Region 6 3-A Player of Year in South Carolina as a two-time all-state honoree. Her 6-3 size enables her to be an effective shot blocker.
GUARDS (7)
Tatianna Jackson (6.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg) was poised for a solid season with 50 points (8.3 ppg) in the first six games before a fluke ankle injury in practice caused her to miss the next six weeks and 12 games of action. She has 14 career double-figure games and 22 3-point baskets made. Jackson grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds in a win at Georgia Southern in 2015-16. She's a vet of 83 collegiate games after her first two years at Chattanooga.
Makeba Ponder (12.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg) has led GSU scoring in her first two seasons with 31 double-figure games. She has led the Sun Belt in 3-point baskets made per game in each of those seasons and has made 122 treys in her 51 career games. Ponder shot 82.4 percent from the free throw line in 2015-16. She was third on the team on defense with 41 steals.
Madison Newby (8.6 ppg, 5.0 apg, 3.8 rpg) was the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year after leading the league with 145 assists. She played the most minutes (871), led the team in steals (47) and was third in scoring. She had a 14-assist game to tie for second in GSU history and had another 12-assist game. Newby had 14 double-figure scoring games with a top game of 20 points vs. Troy.
K.K. Williams (3.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg) played in all 29 games and started 14 games as a freshman, logging 452 minutes. She had a pair of games with nine points and three games with eight points, just missing double figures. She had seven rebounds and six rebounds in a pair of Sun Belt games. She played 25 minutes or more in a game three times.
Kierra Henry (3.3 ppg, 1.2 rpg) missed time with an ankle injury, but still played 21 games and 183 minutes during her freshman season. She scored 12 points in the season finale at UL Monroe. In her first collegiate game (at Kennesaw State), she came off the bench in the final four minutes to score three key points in the Panthers' come-from-behind win.
Jada Lewis (17.9 ppg, 5.4 apg, 3.0 spg) was named Georgia's Player-of-the-Year in the largest classification in 2015-16. She helped lead her team to three consecutive state championships and finished a career with 1,612 points. Lewis accounted for another 1,000 points with her 514 career assists and made 188 career 3-point baskets. Her McEachern High School teams had a 78-15 (.739) record during her career.
Jaylyn Harrison (9.8 ppg, 2.9 apg) helped lead Orlando's Colonial High School team to a 97-20 mark with four consecutive 20-win seasons. The point guard finished with 946 points, 316 assists, 266 steals and 159 3-point baskets. Harrison, a southpaw, was a teammate of GSU sophomore Astaja Tyghter at Colonial.
Waiting in the Wings
Georgia State's 15th roster spot is a junior college transfer who will practice with the team, but sit this season after playing a pro year in Europe. Francesca Minali, a 6-2 forward, scored 311 points (9.4) with 216 rebounds (6.5) in 2015-16 at NE Community College in Nebraska. She had 14 double-figure scoring games and five double-figure rebounding games. She played her first year with Crema-Italy in the EuroBasketball League before coming to the United States.
The Schedule
Georgia State will play a 30-game regular season schedule that includes an opening three-game event at Morehead State and the GSU Holiday Classic featuring Akron and Elon. GSU faces road games at Alabama and Georgia Tech, along with Penn State.
All 12 Sun Belt teams will play an 18-game slate and then all qualify for the March tournament in New Orleans. Seeds 1-4 will receive first-round Sun Belt byes in the new tournament format.
