Basketball season returned with a bang. The men’s and women’s teams opened up their 2019-20 campaigns with a pair of exhibition matches at the GSU Sports Arena. Behind an impressive team performance, the men laid down their intentions and recorded a dominant win.
While the women ultimately lost their matchup, head coach Gene Hill was able to give his young players plenty of minutes to learn from and build upon their mistakes.
The women’s basketball team was defeated 78-73 by the Tuskegee Golden Tigers Tuesday night. Because of NCAA rules, the transfer players were unable to compete. The Preseason All-Sun Belt First Team’s Jada Lewis did not play either. Half of the team’s freshmen started. The Panthers made a late push in the second half to almost claim the game but ultimately came up short.
“We understand we are playing with six freshmen right now,”Hill said. “It is a learning experience. Tuskegee is a good team. We knew that it would be a good game for us to learn. Tuskegee came out and played well and hard. They deserved their win.”
Freshman Taylor Henderson and senior Shaquanda Miller-McCray led the team in scoring. Hill was pleased with their performances but is looking for further improvement.
“We expect big things are coming from them this year,” Hill said. “We knew how good Taylor was, and she is learning. She had some missed assignments that we will work on and get better at.”
Miller-McCray ended the game with 16 points. While the senior’s offensive performance was impressive, Hill noted a need for improvement on the defensive side of the ball.
“Shaq is a big part of what we are trying to do,” he said, referring to Miller-McCray by her nickname. “She had missed assignments, also. That put her in a situation where she was fouled out.”
Henderson ended the game with a stellar 22 points in her first game as a Panther. Even though she had a great game, she remains focused on improving her game.
“I would not say I played [well],” she said. “I have a lot of other stuff I need to improve on. I’m happy to see I was able to find excellent moments and make good plays in my first college game, but I have a lot to work on.”
Comparing the first and second half, the Panthers played utterly differently. Hill gave the freshmen advice in the halftime break, which played a big part in the second-half turnaround.
“I can tell [the freshmen] were getting down on themselves,” Hill said. “I said, ‘Hey, listen. ESPN is not tweeting about you missing a shot. You are going to miss a shot. Just continue to stay with it. We know you can make shots.’ They are going through that freshmen jitters. They can shoot.”
For Henderson, the coach’s locker room advice means a lot.
“Coach Hill is very encouraging,” she said. “His response and actions are always great. He never brings us down or fusses at us.”
The Panthers open up their regular season play on Nov. 5 against the Toledo Rockets. For Hill, the game represents an opportunity to reverse some of the mistakes made in the exhibition game.
“Toledo is tough. They are a great program [and] well-coached,” Hill said. “They have some new players and really good veterans. We have to play better than we played tonight. We have to come out and play for forty minutes.”
On the men’s side, the Panthers rolled to their 101-66 victory over the Point University Skyhawks Friday night. The Skyhawks led for all of one minute and 48 seconds at the beginning of the first period. From that point on, it was all Georgia State.
The Panthers had five players post double figure statlines. Joe Jones lll, Damon Wilson, Justin Roberts, Corey Allen and Nelson Phillips each showed off their abilities to pour it on. The Panthers shot 49.4% from the field, 33.3% from downtown and 66.7% from the free throw line.
The success of their offense was solidified on the defensive end. Overall, the Panthers had 18 steals and four blocked shots. This allowed them to score 38 points off of turnovers and 28 points on the fast break.
The Panthers were also able to dominate down low, scoring 50 points in the paint and limiting the Skyhawks to a measly 20 points in the paint of their own.
Despite all of this success in the exhibition, head coach Rob Lanier is still disappointed with some aspects of his team’s performance. In particular, he was disappointed with defensive lapses that allowed Point to generate life as a team, namely the 12-0 run the Skyhawks went on near the end of the first period.
“We got into a situation where we were playing to score instead of playing the game,” Lanier said. “And I thought we took a little bit of a step back in the latter part of the first half.”
The Panthers start their regular season on Wednesday against the Brewton-Parker College Barons. The team is looking forward to being able to start the season at home in front of their fans.
“[I am] just excited,” Roberts said. “I mean, it’s our season opener [and] the first game that’ll count. Just ready to get out there and show that we’re back.”
Roberts and many of his fellow teammates will be hoping to prove any doubters wrong and fill the massive void left by the departures of last season’s core lineup.
Only time will tell how the men’s and women’s squads finish this season, but one thing is certain: Both teams are out to surprise the masses.
