Photo Submitted by Georgia State Athletics| The Signal
Georgia State’s women’s basketball entered last season looking to improve on the 13 wins that they achieved the season before. However, defense, injuries, and inexperience plagued the Panther’s 2015-16 year as they took several steps back from the previous season. Last season, the Panthers finished tenth in the conference and missed out on the Sun Belt conference championship tournament. With the reigning freshman of the year in Madison Newby, and Preseason All-Sun Belt second team selection member in Makeba Ponder, the Panthers are ready to take the next step and compete in the Sun Belt conference.
Last season started off decent for the Panthers getting off to a 5-4 start in the non-conference with some tough wins over Kennesaw State, Howard, North Florida, Bethune-Cookman, and Stetson, not great teams, but some solid competition for the team. After winning the first game against UT-Arlington, the Panthers lost three straight and were never able to recover or string together a winning streak. One reason for that was their defense.
“Last year as a team, defensively we weren’t there really, we were getting better at it, but it didn’t quite make it to the end,” sophomore guard Astaja Tyghter said. “We need to box out more and just have more structure defensively.”
The Panthers allowed 71.3 points per game last season, along with 39.7 rebounds per game. Defensively, giving up 71 points per game isn’t terrible if you have a great offense, which is one thing that the Panthers didn’t have last season, so that is something that they must improve on going into this year.
Another factor that plagued the team was how inexperienced it was. They relied heavily on freshmen last season.
“I think last year was a challenge for us because we depended on freshmen more than we expected,” Head Coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. “We had a lot of key injuries to some players that we thought were going to have a big year for us.”
Freshmen played a bigger role on the team than what was anticipated going into the season and that was evident on the stats sheet. Freshmen either led the team or were in the top three on the team in the following categories: points, scoring average, rebounds, defensive rebounds, assists, steals, minutes, and turnovers.
This season the Panthers will return 10 players, and all five starters from last year, so having freshmen log a lot of minutes wasn’t an all-around loss.
“Our freshmen grew up, they played a lot of minutes and they are more mature on-and-off of the court this year,” Baldwin-Tener said.
Coach Baldwin-Tener also mentioned that she wanted the team to be in better shape this season.
“I wanted to improve the conditioning. Other teams were in better shape and stronger than we were, but we have been in the weight room this summer so we are a lot stronger and in better game condition,” Baldwin-Tener said.
Key returning players
As mentioned before the Panthers will essentially be returning their entire team from last season. The teams arguably three best players will all return.
Newby, who is the team’s leader and starting point guard is the reigning freshman of the year in the Sun Belt Conference. Last season she averaged 8.6 points per game to go along with 3.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 4.8 turnovers. Newby lead the Sun Belt in assist last season, but also lead the conference in turnovers. Newby logged 871 minutes last season, which was the most on the team and an average of 30 minutes per game.
Makeba Ponder is probably the team’s top offensive threat, averaging 12.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 2.0 turnovers per game last season. Her performance garnered her a selection on the Preseason All-Sun Belt Second Team, but she will have to continue those numbers, and prove to not only validate that selection but help the team win more games.
Sophomore Astaja Tyghter was one player that really stuck out this offseason to Coach Baldwin-Tener .
“Astaja is a lot better basketball player, she is a lot more mature now than she was last season. She now what it takes to be a more competitive player,” Coach Baldwin-Tener said.
Tyghter averaged 8.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.8 turnovers per game last year. This offseason, she said that she wanted to work on being more consistent.
“Well being more consistent with my shots, driving to the basket more, using my right hand more, and just working my game as a whole,” Tyghter said.
The Panthers lost five players from last season’s team. Seniors Ashlee Cole and Morgan Jackson, junior Erica Norwood, and sophomores D’Arcy Draper and Nasheema Oliver. Cole averaged 17 minutes per game last season.
The future is bright, of the 15 players on the roster only four of them are seniors, so the main core of the team still has time to grow together before it has to split up.
The team has a lot to prove. Also, they have the talent to be better than ninth in the conference. It all comes down to whether or not they can stay improve on their defense, and if they can stay healthy this season.
The schedule sets up favorably for the Panthers with a mixture of road and home games, including a trip to Florida for the San Juan shootout, which should prepare them well for the start of Sun Belt conference play the part of the season that really matters.
- 10 returning players, and all five returning starters
- Averaged 64 points per game as a team
- Madison Newby 2015-16 Sun Belt Freshman of the Year
- Second in the Sun Belt conference in steals and rebounds
