Friday, Nov. 28
Nolan's 20 Leads Panthers Past Samford, 61-56
ATLANTA - Georgia State rallied from nine points down in the second half to earn a 61-56 win over Samford in the opening round of the GSU Thanksgiving Invitational in the GSU Sports Arena.
Georgia State will meet Liberty, a 80-68 winner over Penn State, in Sunday’s championship game at 2:30 p.m. Samford and Penn State will play at 12:30 p.m.
The Panthers struggled early with their shooting, hitting just 32.5 percent in the first half in trailing 30-29. Georgia State got the lead 33-32, but Samford went on an 11-1 run to open a 43-34 advantage at 12:42.
Host Georgia State continued to chip away and got a one-point lead with 6:45 to play. Samford answered with a basket, but a Brittany Logan gave GSU the lead for good at 54-53 with 5:16. A steal and lay-up by Andrews made it 56-53 and another high-arcing base line floater by Andrews upped the lead to 58-53 at 3:59.
With GSU leading 59-56 with 1:31, Samford had a chance for a tie, but a shot clock violation gave the ball back to the hosts. Nolan made a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to seal the win.
Georgia State held Samford to 26 points in the second half, forcing 20 turnovers and making eight steals for the game.
Georgia State got off 17 more shots than Samford (67-50) and held a 38-36 rebounding advantage for the game.
Qedan Matches Convocation Center Records in 79-39 Rout of CBU
JONESBORO, Ark. (11/28/14) – Hanna Qedan tied a pair of Convocation Center records and Khadija Brown-Haywood scored a career-high 21 points to lead the Arkansas State women’s basketball team to a 79-39 victory over Christian Brothers Friday night.
Qedan tied the Convocation Center record for highest field goal percentage in game with a 6-for-6 night from the field and also tied the mark for highest 3-point field goal percentage with a perfect 3-for-3 mark from beyond the arc. The Farmington, Ark., native finished the game with 17 points, five assists, one blocked shot and four rebounds. Brown-Haywood scored a career-high in points for the third time this season and narrowly missed tying the Convocation Center for field goal percentage with an 8-for-9 night from the field.
“I’m proud of our team and we’ve worked really hard this week and it started the morning after the Colorado game,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “Defensively we were better tonight and pressured them really well and finished plays. Offensively it has been there all year and I kind of expected us to be a little sloppy because we’ve worked so much on defense this week but I thought overall we played really well.”
A-State (2-2) jumped out to a 15-2 advantage in the first half and carried a 44-22 lead into the halftime break. Qedan and Brown-Haywood got the A-State offense going by scoring 11 straight points over a three minute span. The pair finished the half with 12 points each and was a combined 9-for-9 from the field with three combined 3-pointers.
The Red Wolves withstood a 7-0 run by the Lady Bucs to get the score within 21-15 and responded with a 6-0 run to push the lead back to double-digits. A-State followed that run with six consecutive makes from the field to take a 33-20 with 3:42 to go in the half.
The lead grew to 51-22 after a 3-pointer by Brown-Haywood with 17:56 to go in the second half. The junior from Centralia, Ill., topped the 20-point plateau for the first time at A-State. She also added two steals, one block and grabbed a career-best seven rebounds.
“Our bench, which consisted of Jamie (Ruffins), Khadija (Brown-Haywood) and (Lauren) Bradshaw, did not miss a shot in the first half and that was good to see,” Boyer said. “We still aren’t settled on who that starting five is yet, but it was still nice to see that group come in and play well and knock down some shots.”
Arkansas State took its largest lead of the night at 73-31 after a layup by Ogo Obinabo with 6:00 to go. All 15 players on the A-State roster played in the game and all but three scored. Aaliyah Warren and Obinabo scored the first points of their careers in the contest, while Brittany Fowler knocked down her first 3-pointer of the season. The Red Wolves held Christian Brother to just 17 points in the second half, which tied a Convocation Center record for fewest points by an opponent in the second half.
A-Sate returns to the court Monday, Dec. 1 against UT Chattanooga for a 7:05 tip-off at the Convocation Center. The Lady Mocs recently defeated No. 4 Tennessee 67-61 and won 29-games a year ago on their way to an NCAA Tournament berth.