Box Score CLEVELAND – Deasia Merrill scored 16 points and Zay Dyer added 14 as Georgia State rallied from double-digits before falling to Cleveland State 57-53 Wednesday in the first game of the Hampton Inn Cleveland Downtown Viking Invitational.

Merrill's 16 points fell one point shy of her career-high 17 set against Agnes Scott on November 7.  The Redshirt-Junior from Villa Rica shot 7-of-15 from the field and dominated on defense, tallying seven rebounds and a career-high four blocks.

Freshman Zay Dyer shot 7-of-14 from the field, including her first collegiate three-pointer, while grabbing 7 rebounds.  Jenae Dublin just missed a double-double, scoring nine points with a career-high 13 rebounds.

Georgia State, which entered the contest ranked second in the Sun Belt in field goal percentage defense, held Cleveland State to 33.9 percent shooting and 25 percent from three-point range and outrebounded the Vikings 42-35.  It is the fifth time this season that the Panther defense held an opponent to under 36 percent from the field.

GSU trailed by 14 in the third quarter when the Panthers went on an 11-2 run capped by Dyer's three-pointer with four seconds left to cut the deficit to pull within 45-40 heading into the fourth.  The Panthers trailed by 54-48 with 1:46 remaining in the fourth when Mikyla Tolivert nailed a three-pointer to pull the Panthers within three.  A layup by Dublin then made it 54-53 with 41 seconds left, but the Vikings made two free throws on the other end, and GSU was unable to get a shot off as the Vikings forced a turnover with 10 seconds left and made 1-of-2 free throws to ice the game.

The Panthers will be in action again Friday in the Viking Invitational, facing St. Bonaventure at 7 p.m.