Georgia State heads back on the road for its third road game of the last four overall, facing a re-match with Towson, who had claimed a 56-52 win in Atlanta on Jan. 22.

GSU heads north with a win in its pocket from Thursday (81-74 over Northeastern), while host Towson will try to shake a three-game losing skid after bowing to VCU Thursday (66-59) at home in the Towson Center.

If there is one series that almost guarantees close games, it would be the GSU-Towson competition. Of the 13 games played, seven have been decided by six points or less, four have been decided between 7-11 points, and only two were blowouts, when GSU won by 46 and 24 points in 2006 and 2007. The last game was in keeping with that with Towson leading 52-50 with 33 seconds and GSU having a chance to tie, but turning the ball over.

Towson is 7-3 at home this year with CAA wins over James Madison (16-5) and William and Mary. GSU is 2-6 on the road and 1-1 on neutral courts in games away from Atlanta.

The young Panthers' five-member freshmen class has seen extensive time, playing 1,376 combined minutes as the youngsters learn to adjust to the college game. GSU has just one senior, forward Chan Harris, who averages 10.3 points and 7.9 rebounds to go with 35 blocked shots. Sophomore guard Kendra Long is the team's leading scorer (11.5), meaning many games GSU has started three freshmen and a sophomore. Twelve different players have started this season and no player has started every game. Eleven have played 180 or more minutes.

Georgia State's 7-14 record has seen the Panthers already play eight top 50 RPI teams (0-8) and 10 top 100 teams (0-11) this season. That schedule would be challenging for a veteran team and is much more so with the young team.

A GLANCE AT TOWSON

The Tigers from the Baltimore area (about 10 miles northeast of center city and the harbor) have an enrollment of more than 21,000 students. An Atlanta connection is that Atlanta Braves' president is a Towson alum and has generously helped fund their program so that the baseball field on camp is named in his honor. Their football stadium is named to local Colt legend Johnny Unitas. Three of the NFL star quarterback's children attended Towson and he threw the first pass to open the stadium in 2002, just before his death.

Towson has been coached for 11 years by Joe Mathews, who came to Towson after four years as a top assistant at Virginia Tech and three years on the staff at Butler.

The Tigers starting line-up includes three seniors and six letterwinners, with senior guard Krystal Parnell averaging in double figures (11.5) and leading the team in assists (78). Newcomer Nyree Williams comes off her transfer year from the University of North Carolina by leading Towson in rebounding with 8.5 per game. The 6-1 post player has 29 blocked shots. Chicago sophomore guard Tanisha McTiller leads the team in scoring with 12.0 per game.

Towson's senior Krystin Fields graduated from the same high school as Georgia State's redshirt junior Nicole Hargraves. Both played for the Whirlies of Grimsley High in Greensboro, N.C., winning conference championships three straight years.

The Tigers are big finishers as they have won four games on last possession plays with three two-point wins and one one-point win this season. Parnell has made the winning basket twice. Parnell made six for six free throws in the final 1:09 to help Towson hang on to beat GSU, 1/22.

FEELING REJECTED- THe SwAT TEAM

GSU leads the CAA and has blocked 110 shots in the 21 games (5.2 per game) with The Swat Team of Harris and Paul accounting for 70 of those 110 rejections. The 5.2 blocks per game ranks No. 25 in the NCAA this season.

HARRIS JOINS ELITE STAT CLUBS

 Senior forward Chan Harris has achieved several milestones in her career.

• Harris became the 20th in GSU history to score 1,000 points (her third basket Feb. 2 vs. Northeastern) and has 1,008 now.
• Harris has 716 rebounds, becoming just the 12th in school history to pull down 700 rebounds.
• The forward has 126 blocks, leap frogging into third place all-time in Panther history. She needs 2 to move into second place.
• She has produced 22 career double-double games and became the 7th to ever have 20 with her double-double vs. ODU on Jan. 19.
• Harris has played in 117 games at GSU, cracking the top 10 list of all-time games played in 7th place. The school best is 121 games by Evita Rogers. She will tie Kelcey Roegiers-Jensen with 118 in 6th on Sunday at Towson

TWO AT HOME NEXT WEEK

The Panthers have a pair of tough home games next week with fourth-place UNC Wilmington (13-8) and first-place Delaware (19-1) coming to the Sports Arena on Thursday and Sunday.