One word comes to mind when looking at the 2013-14 women’s basketball team: diverse.
Diverse in all senses of the word such as height, depth, abilities and strengths amongst the 14 women that amalgamate to form a competitive team with a concrete chemistry.
Going into her fourth season as the Panthers’ head coach, Sharon Baldwin-Tener has high expectations for her team, saying this is one of the strongest, fastest teams she’s had at Georgia State.
“I think we’ve got a lot of pieces,” Baldwin-Tener said. “We should be able to push the ball more, we should be a bit deeper, be able to play some more people and not drop off significantly when we go to the bench.”
Baldwin-Tenor has eight players returning to the team, six of whom were the team’s leading scorers on last year’s 13-16 season.
Senior Kendra Long is the most experienced player returning. Long played in all 90 possible games over three seasons at Georgia State, starting in 74 of those. Last season she started every game but one.
The 5-9 guard has 867 career points and needs 133 to hit the 1,000-point milestone. Long has a school record of 165 three-pointers with the Panthers.
“I think we [are] in the best shape we [have] ever be in,” Long said of her team. “The conditioning we’ve been doing over the summer, we’ve been working hard.”
Conditioning has been a heavy focus for Baldwin-Tenor, saying it will make it so each player can handle more minutes on the court.
Adding depth to the team are six juniors to balance the number of upper- and lowerclassmen on the team.
Of the six juniors, there are two contrasting transfers filling in gaps in the Panthers’ lineup.
Brittany Logan, a 6-foot-4-inch center, transferred from Georgia Perimeter College after playing two seasons with their team.
Logan was an All-American honorable mention who averaged 10 rebounds per game and racked up 17 double-doubles in the 2012-13 season. Logan was ranked 14 in the NJCAA in points per game averaging 10.3.
“She’s a big presence,” Baldwin-Tener said on her new center. “She’s very physical down low and that’s something that we’ve really not had in the three years I’ve been here.”
Measuring in at 4-foot-11-inches, Alisha Andrews is eligible to play for the Panthers after having to sit a year because of transferring from UNCW.
“It feels real good,” Andrews said on finally returning to the court. “We had a scrimmage…I was just smiling the whole time. We didn’t do as well as we wanted to, but I was just happy to be back on the court.”
Andrews was the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Year in 2010. The guard shot 132 three-pointers in two seasons.
The word diverse can be stretched even further as the Panthers have two players who came from out of the country to play for the team.
Maryam Dogo is from Kaduna, Nigeria and in her second season with the Panthers. Dogo is a redshirt junior who played in all 29 games last season scoring 142 points.
Another newcomer to the team is freshman Mariam Hannoun, who came to Georgia State from Nahariya, Israel.
In Israel, Hannoun regularly played in European U-20 championships, but now is making the adjustment to American basketball, which has significant differences from the international game.
An expanded court, larger three-point arc, different shape of the lane and fouling rules are some of the notable differences from international basketball to American.
“I think here, [I] work harder than in Israel,” Hannoun said explaining that it has been a challenge to adapt to a new style of a game she’s played her whole life.
Last season, the Panthers started strong opening their season with a victory over the University of Central Florida and going 8-3 against non-conference opponents.
The team started their final season in CAA losing five of their first six games and finished 5-13 in the conference.
This season seems brighter for the Panthers as they move into the Sun Belt Conference, an up-tempo and competitive conference in women’s basketball. Baldwin-Tenor said that she sees her team having much success in the conference.
“It’s not as big,” Baldwin-Tener said of the Sun Belt, “…so I’m hoping we’ll have the advantage there, but the thing is a lot of the teams are very athletic and very quick.”
The Panthers will open their season on the road in the Preseason WNIT tournament Nov. 8-14.
They make their home debut on Nov. 19 against UCF.
Other notable games this season will be when the Panthers host their annual Georgia State Invitational over Thanksgiving weekend.
The Georgia Bulldogs, George Washington and Jacksonville State will travel to the Georgia State Sports Arena for the invitational that takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 1.
The inaugural Sun Belt game for the team will be Jan. 1, 2014 against the Troy Trojans.
