STATE SPORTS UPDATE: A look at close of basketball season, beginning of baseball

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL – The team opens the CAA Championship on Thursday at noon as the #9 seed playing the #8 seed, Northeastern, in Harrisonburg, Va. After a winning regular season (15-14), despite losing two starters for the season and a third for the past several weeks, the Panthers still won two of the last three games to carry some momentum into the tournament. The Panthers expect to get leading scorer, Danyiell McKeller, back from her injury for the tournament.

BASEBALL – WINNIN’ and GRINNIN’ – The Panthers found the anecdote for snapping the 0-6 start with a four-game record-breaking sweep over North Carolina Central. Georgia State won the four games by outscoring N.C. Central a combined 103-10 with 83 hits, 41 walks and 21 errors committed by Central to help the Panthers even more. That included breaking the single-game run total of 22 runs three different times in 33-5, 32-3 and 24-2 wins. The fourth was a 14-0 shutout. One of the many leaders of the weekend was junior shortstop Mark Micowski, who hit for the cycle in the first game as he went 7-for-8 just on day one, and upped his season average to .489. The Panthers, now 4-6, will play host to UNC Asheville at 4 p.m. Monday to try for five in a row.

SOFTBALL – WINNIN’ and GRINNIN’ – The 12-5 Panthers had three wins over the weekend at the Buzz Classic, including a delightful 7-1 win over No. 23 Kentucky. GSU also earned wins over Bowling Green (8-0) and Dartmouth (11-2). Lily Skelton has been an offensive leader early in the season with her five home runs. The Panthers are scheduled to play host to Georgia Tech on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Panthresville and play in a tournament on March 13-14 at Tech.

TRACK – Tamika Kinchen ran an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 2:07 in the 800 meters and just missed her school record by .2 of a second at the Notre Dame Indoor Meet Saturday. Loris Hutterli came in 10th in the 3,000 meters and Janel Blancett finished 11th in her 3,000-meter race at Notre Dame.

MEN’S TENNIS – The men dropped to 7-5 with a 4-3 loss to Winthrop. The Panthers were without No. 1 singles player, Calvin Kemp, out temporarily with a knee injury. The team will travel to Jacksonville to play Jacksonville on March 10 and Appalachian State on March 11.

WOMEN’S TENNIS – Sophomore leader Diana Nakic remains undefeated at No. 1 singles, 9-0 on the year, with her win Saturday over Samford. The Panthers, with just five players, still pulled out a win over Samford.
Next, they will play North Texas State on March 14 over at Georgia Tech.

MEN’S BASKETBALL – The Panthers went out with guns blazing at the CAA Championship in Richmond. The gritty Panthers had rallied to take a one-point lead twice in the last couple minutes and had a one-point lead in the closing 30 seconds when Hofstra made an 18-footer with 16 seconds left to gain the lead for the final time. GSU had one last chance for the winning basket, but couldn’t get a shot off before the horn went off to end the season. The team finishes 12-20 as Joe Dukes again earned All-CAA honors (third
team) and Jihad Ali was recognized as All-Academic second team.

MEN’S GOLF – The Panthers will get busy with a tournament on March 8 and 9 at Samford and then another tournament at Florida State on March 12 and 14. They enter these events after a fourth-place finish last week.

WOMEN’S GOLF – After a second-place finish last week in the 15-team UCF Invitational won by No. 24 Texas A&M, the Panthers should move up from their No. 51 national ranking. Next up is the only home tournament of the year, the annual John Kirk Invitational at Eagle’s landing on March 22 and 23.

FOOTBALL – Football will begin Spring Practice season on March 17th and lead up to the final practice scrimmage on April 10 at the Dome.

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