CLUTCH PANTHERS USE LATE SURGE TO DEFEAT OWLS
ATLANTA - After falling behind with under two minutes to play, Georgia State (3-2) rallied to score the final four points of the game to take down Kennesaw State (0-4) 62-59 Tuesday night at the GSU Sports Arena.

Although Georgia State led for the majority of the contest, the Owls came on strong in the second half and converted a layup with 1:52 remaining in the game to take a 59-58 lead. Georgia State had two looks from long range, but missed both as the clock reached one minute. Finally, Tiffany Holston broke the drought with a bucket down low to retake the lead. Following a KSU timeout, Jada Lewis picked off a pass for her third steal of the game.

The Owls would get their own turnover, however, and had a chance to go back on top with 13 seconds to go. But Lewis stepped up once again and snagged the rebound off the miss and was fouled with eight seconds left. The freshman went on to make both her free throws to give GSU the 62-59 advantage and the Owls missed a last-second three-point attempt that would’ve sent the contest to overtime.

“Jada doesn’t play like a normal freshman,” head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. “She expects to win and I really had no doubt that she was going to make both of those free throws.”

Lewis finished with 16 points in 37 minutes while Holston led all players with 19 points. Playing her fifth game as a Panther, Holston recorded her second double-double with 11 boards. The graduate transfer led the charge late for GSU, scoring nine of her points in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers pounded the ball inside all game and finished with a 46 points in the paint compared to KSU’s 28. GSU also had 23 offensive boards compared to KSU’s eight which led to 29 second chance points for the Panthers while the Owls scored just two second chance points.

Georgia State now leads the all-time series with Kennesaw State 8-1. All four of the last meetings have been decided by nine points or fewer.

Next up for Georgia State is two games at the San Juan Shootout in Daytona Beach, Fla. GSU plays Penn State on Thursday and American on Friday.

Cajuns Fall To No. 1 Notre Dame In Houston, 91-51
Houston – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team fell to No. 1 Notre Dame, 91-51, in a bizarre game that saw a location change late in the second quarter on Tuesday night.

The game began at the Campbell Center in Houston, Texas, but was forced to move to Rice University due to a power outage that occurred with Notre Dame leading Louisiana, 38-17 with 2:38 left in the second quarter.

When the game resumed at Tudor Fieldhouse, the Fighting Irish proved why they are the nation's top team.

Notre Dame led 42-20 at halftime and pulled away in the second half behind a career-high 27 points from Marina Mabrey including 4-for-7 from three-point range. Brianna Turner added 16 points and 12 rebounds for her second double-double of the season.

Louisiana kept the game close in the first quarter and went on a 7-0 run to cut the Notre Dame lead to 13-10 with 4:37 left in the first quarter. The Fighting Irish responded and led 19-15 at the end of the first period.

Notre Dame then went on a 19-2 run before the teams were forced to change locations.

Louisiana was led in scoring by Jaylyn Gordon with 16 points while Jasmine Thomas added 15 points for the Cajuns.

Louisiana will return to action on Friday, Nov. 25 when it travels to play Southeast Missouri State in a 1:30 p.m. game in Hattiesburg, Miss. as part of the Lady Eagle Classic.

Eagles Give Alabama All It Can Handle on the Road, Falling to Late Surge by Tide
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For 35 minutes, the Georgia Southern women's basketball team did more than just hang around with undefeated Alabama, the Eagles gave the Crimson Tide all they could handle and even led the Tide with five minutes to go in the third quarter. The Eagles were aggressive on both offense and defense and it showed as Alabama had to rely on a late surge to claim a 66-48 win inside Coleman Coliseum.

Despite the final score being a double-digit difference, the game was much closer and competitive as the Eagles (2-3) came into the game on the SEC Network+ wanting to make a statement with a young team. They succeeded by making the Tide throw the ball away 13 times and forced Alabama to change up its normal game plan which features a fast pace and a lot of transition baskets. The Tide (4-0), also a young program without a single senior on the roster, was looking to maintain what has been an impressive start to their season where they averaged over 80 points per game through the first three games, including an 82-35 thumping of Lipscomb on Nov. 17.

On offense, the Eagles shot 39.2% (20-51) from the field, including matching 41.7% (5-12) efforts in the second and fourth quarters. Despite going up against five Crimson Tide players who stand over 6-0, the Eagles were able to work the ball down low for much of the night, doing the most damage under the basket as they connected on just four three-pointers in the 40-minute contest.

On the other side of the court, the Eagles held Alabama to 35.8% (24-67) from the field, including 11.1% (2-18) in the second quarter. For the second game in a row, the Eagles keyed in on a team's most lethal offensive player and held them to well below their season average. This time, it was freshman point guard Jordan Lewis who received a lot more attention from Georgia Southern as she entered the game leading the team with 14.7 and 7.3 rebounds points per game. Tuesday night, the Windermere, Fla., native scored just eight points, four late in the second half, and had just four rebounds in 34 minutes of work.

Georgia Southern was led by the tandem of senior Patrice Butler and freshman Amira Atwater, combining for 31 of the Eagles' points and three treys. Atwater, making just her second-career collegiate start, hit one of her two three-pointers just 45 seconds into the game and went on to hit her first four shots from the field. The freshman point guard didn't look like a freshman as she expertly ran the Eagles' offense and bobbed and weaved her way through Alabama defenders all night long. Despite being credited with just one steal, the 5-6 guard out of Douglasville, Ga., disrupted several Crimson Tide plays in the game and was part of an Eagle defense that forced the 13 turnovers by Alabama.

Butler, who led Georgia Southern in scoring for the 22nd time in her illustrious career, went 8-for-12 (.667) from the field and also corralled in four rebounds while sister Sierra Butler led the Eagles with nine boards to go along with six points.

Alabama benefitted from Ashley Williams and Hannah Cook combining for 36 points, including a double-double by Williams and five three-pointers from Cook. Williams tallied 19 points and a game-high 14 rebounds while Cook hit on five of her 14 attempts from long range to end the game with 17 points. Meoshonti Knight was the third and final Crimson Tide player to score in double digits, ending her 36 minutes with 14 points.

THE STORY
Alabama won the opening tip and immediately rolled down the court to take an early 3-0 lead off a Lewis trey, but Atwater and the Eagles were prepared and had an answer just a few seconds later when the freshman point guard for Georgia Southern connected on her first three-pointer of the game just 45 seconds in. Patrice Butler gave the Eagles their first lead of the game, a 6-4 advantage, with a trey less than two minutes into the contest.

From there, the Eagles played some of their best basketball under head coach Kip Drown. Utilizing a stout two-three zone defense, the Eagles held the Tide to below 30% shooting for much of the game and took a one-point, 25-24 lead into the locker room at halftime. Georgia Southern held the Tide to just 2-for-18 (.111) from the field in the second quarter and 8-33 (.242) for the first half and forced nine first-half turnovers by the Tide.

The third quarter saw the two teams trade the lead back-and-forth nine times in the opening 4:30 of the second half before Alabama was able to secure the lead for good off one of Cook's three-pointers. Despite falling behind, the Eagles continued to apply excellent pressure on the Tide and took away Alabama's one-two-two half court press, forcing the Tide back into a two-three zone for the second half. Alabama wasn't able to take a double-digit lead until six and-a-half minutes into the fourth quarter, capitalizing on a couple late turnovers by Georgia Southern and several shots that just would not fall the way the Eagles wanted.

A-State Drops Home Opener to No. 16 Florida
JONESBORO, Ark. (11/22/16) – The Arkansas State women’s basketball team got a career-high 23 points from senior guard Dominique Oliver and was within three points of 16th-ranked Florida nearly midway through the fourth period, but the Gators used a late run to pull away and collect a 71-60 victory Tuesday night in the Red Wolves’ home opener at the Convocation Center.

Arkansas State saw its record move to 0-4 on the young season, while Florida remains undefeated with a 4-0 mark. The setback snapped the Red Wolves’ school-record 25-game home winning streak, which was also the fourth longest in the nation entering the contest.

Oliver added six rebounds and a career-high four steals to go along with her 23 points, which were the most this season by an A-State player. She was joined in double figures by freshman guard Tahlon Hopkins, who came off the bench to score a career-tying 11 points.

“As I told the team, I don’t think anybody can watch that game and feel like our team did not play their hardest from start to finish and certainly that is a starting point moving forward,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “There are a lot teams that a team might be ranked in the top-25, but they really aren’t one of the best teams in the nation but this is not one of those times because this team is probably better than that No. 16 ranking and I could not be more pleased with how my team handled that pressure tonight and the effort they gave all night.”

Florida jumped out to an early 11-2 advantage, but A-State was able to trim its deficit to five points by the end of the first period and then matched the Gators’ scoring output in both the second and third periods.

Trailing 54-48 with 7:23 left in the game, senior guard Brittany Fowler connected on one of A-State’s nine three-pointers to put the home team down by just three pointers. However, Florida countered with a three from Eleanna Christinaki its next trip down the court to start a 13-2 run for the Gators. A-State was able to pull back within 10 at 67-57 with 3:41 remaining, but couldn’t get any closer.

The Red Wolves ended the night with a .303 shooting percentage in comparison to Florida’s .424 mark and were outrebounded 45-39, but committed three fewer turnovers while connecting on 40.9 percent of their three-point attempts to the Gator’s 26.7 percentage.

“What I really liked about today is that we sustained our defensive effort all the way through the game,” Boyer said. “In other games we had lapses at certain points, but I thought today we did a really good job of sustaining our game plan all the way through.”

A-State was led on the boards by junior forward Lauren Bradshaw with a season-tying eight rebounds, while Fowler scored nine points and handed out a team-high four assists along with freshman guard Tayton Hopkins. Florida was led by Christinaki with a team-high 23 points.

Although Arkansas State fell behind by nine points to begin the game, they outscored Florida 10-6 the remainder of the first period. Both teams scored 19 points in the second period as the Gators took a 36-31 lead into the break.

The Red Wolves are now set to begin a two-game road swing, starting with a 2:00 p.m. contest Sunday, Nov. 27, at Iowa State. They will then face Wichita State on Friday, Dec. 2, before returning to the Convo to host Tulsa on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

ULM Keeps LSUA at Bay on Tuesday
Thibodaux, La. - The ULM women’s basketball team moved past visiting LSU Alexandria for a 73-61 win on Tuesday night, led by Gabriella Cortez's game-high 25 points and double-doubles from Stephanie Ratliff and Carissa Moody.

TURNING POINT

The Generals cut the scoring deficit to four points via a layup with 2:52 left in the game. The Warhawks defense stepped up and held LSUA scoreless to close the night while going on an 8-0 run to close things out. Six of the final eight points were made at the free throw line by ULM.

NOTEABLES

-Gabriella Cortez led the offense with 25 total points in the contest. The junior added three assists and four rebounds to her stat line.

-Stephanie Ratliff and Carissa Moody recorded double-doubles on the night. Ratliff with 10 total blocks and 15 total rebounds (5-10) and Moody with 17 points and 10 rebounds (1-9).

-Carissa Moody (4-of-4) and Cortez (11-for-11) both finished perfect at the free throw line tonight as ULM finished 20-for-26 as a team at the stripe (76 percent).

-ULM led in points in the paint (40 compared to LSUA's 26), fast break points (6-0), points off the bench (20-16) and shooting percentage (54 percent - 29 percent). On the other end of the spectrum, LSUA led in points off turnovers (30 compared to ULM’s 22) and second chance points (22-13).

-ULM out rebounded LSUA 47-38. The Warhawks grabbed 12 offensive rebounds and 35 defensive rebounds compared to the 26 offensive rebounds and 12 defensive rebounds of the Generals.