ATLANTA — Georgia State held off a second-half comeback attempt and beat the South Alabama women’s basketball team 62-55 on Thursday afternoon, a day after the Lady Jaguars arrived from a 24-hour bus trip to Atlanta that began Tuesday.
The loss dropped South Alabama to 6-12 overall and 4-4 in Sun Belt Conference play. Georgia State won its fifth straight game to improve to 10-10 overall and 6-2 in the league.
Cold First Half
South Alabama jumped out to an 8-2 lead before its offense stalled. The Lady Jaguars missed 14 of their next 15 shots, and a streak of 11 consecutive misses ended when Meghan Dunn scored with 9:43 left in the first half.
Georgia State used an 18-2 run to go up 20-10 with about six minutes left before halftime. South Alabama shot 6-of-31 (19.4 percent) in the first half and made one 3-pointer. Georgia State shot 45.2 percent, and 22 of its 31 first-half points came in the paint.
Comeback Attempt
Dunn opened the second half with a 3-pointer, but Georgia State answered with a 13-1 run over the next three and a half minutes to build a 24-point lead.
A Breanna Hall assist to Ronneka Robertson started a 13-2 South Alabama run over the next four-plus minutes, and the Lady Jaguars cut the deficit to 46-33 with less than 12 minutes to play.
Georgia State scored twice to push the lead back to 17. Sharon Sanders hit a 3-pointer with 4:01 left to make it 54-46. Dunn banked in a 3-pointer from the left wing and followed with a baseline jumper with 1:46 remaining, pulling South Alabama within 58-53.
Kayla Nolan answered with a basket and converted the free throw on a three-point play to put the game out of reach.
South Alabama shot 14-of-25 (56 percent) from the field and 6-of-13 from 3-point range in the second half.
Individual Leaders
Dunn led South Alabama with 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting and had team highs of three 3-pointers and three steals. Jennifer Johnson scored 11 points off the bench on 5-of-12 shooting. Hall finished one point shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Alisha Andrews led all scorers with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting for Georgia State, adding five assists and three steals. Brittany Logan posted her third straight double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Up Next
South Alabama plays again Saturday. A game for former players is scheduled for 11 a.m., followed by the women’s game at 2:05 p.m. and the men’s game at 4:05 p.m.
