Georgia State comes back to Atlanta for the final pair of home games, starting with the Virginia Commonwealth Rams on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
This is a re-match with VCU after the Rams posted a 75-70 win in Richmond on Jan. 29, with Courtney Hurt sparking a second-half comeback as she finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds. Hurt had her fifth 20-20 game in Sunday's win at ODU with 21 points and 20 rebounds.
It is a "homecoming" for Hurt, the nation's leading rebounder (13.1 per game), as she played at Salem High in Conyers, Ga., about 30 miles from the GSU Sports Arena. Also able to return home is junior forward Daphne Adebayo, from Duluth High, about 25 miles north of the Sports Arena.
The Rams have two other Georgians on their roster as Zakia Williams played at Northside in Columbus and Shekinah Henry starred at Vidalia High.
The young Panthers' five-member freshmen class has seen extensive time, playing 1,629 combined minutes as the youngsters learn to adjust to the college game. Two of those freshmen have been CAA Rookies of the Week (Alana Beroth and Miranda Smith).
GSU has just one senior, forward Chan Harris, who averages 10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds to go with 39 blocked shots. Harris has double-double games in four of the last six, nine this year and 25 double-doubles for her career. Sophomore guard Kendra Long is the team's leading scorer (11.1), 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.
Georgia State's 7-19 record has seen the Panthers already play nine top 50 RPI teams (0-9) and 13 top 100 teams (0-13) this season. GSU is 7-6 against teams from 100-to-343 in the RPI rankings. The CAA has seven teams in the Top 100 RPI. That schedule would be challenging for a veteran team and is much more so with the young team. VCU will be a 14th game against a Top 100 team as they are No. 98.
OH, SO CLOSE
GSU has lost two of its last five games in overtime (at Towson Feb. 5, at Mason, Feb. 19), plus a third game on a buzzer-beater in regulation (UNCW, Feb. 9) and five of its last nine games are losses by five or fewer points (VCU, 75-70 on Jan. 29, home Towson, 63-59 on Jan. 22).
A GLANCE AT VCU
The Rams from Richmond were voted to finish No. 2 in the preseason poll, primarily because they had two of the five first-team pre-season All-CAA picks in Courtney Hurt and Andrea Barbour. The Rams returned four seniors from their 19-12 team that lost to JMU in the semifinals of the CAA Tournament.
VCU's honorable mention All-America star, Courtney Hurt, became the school's all-time scoring leader with 1,904 points and also has become the VCU all-time leading rebounder with 1,137 rebounds. Hurt is a native of Conyers, Ga., (Salem High School).
This year, Hurt is No. 1 in the NCAA in rebounding (13.1 per game, 341 total in 26 games) and No. 8 in the NCAA in scoring (21.9 per game, 569 points). She has double-double games in 42 of her last 57 games played.
Senior Andrea Barbour is the other stalwart, averaging 17 points per game, plus six rebounds a game to go with 62 steals. This duo gives VCU two of the top 75 scorers in the country.
Currently, VCU sits in 6th place in the CAA standings at 8-7 with three games remaining (at Georgia State, home vs. George Mason and at Drexel).
In the first game this year, Hurt and Barbour combined for 43 of VCU's 75 points in the 75-70 win. GSU led at halftime, 37-33. The Rams hit 20-of-30 free throws to make the difference. GSU held a 39-38 rebound advantage.
VCU is now the largest university in Virginia with more than 30,000 students as it edged ahead of George Mason, with Virginia Tech third and the University of Virginia fourth.
VCU head coach Beth Cunningham is a nine-year veteran Rams head coach. She is Notre Dame's all-time leading scorer, graduating in 1997.
FEELING REJECTED- THE SWAT TEAM
GSU leads the CAA and has blocked 128 shots in the 26 games (4.9 per game) with The Swat Team of Harris and Paul accounting for 83 of those 128 rejections. The 4.9 blocks per game ranks No. 36 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 1,056 now (18th in school history)
- Harris has 772 rebounds, becoming just the 12th in school history to pull down 700 rebounds. She is 10th now with 772, needing 16 for ninth place.
- The forward has 130 blocks, leap frogging into second place all-time in Panther history. The school record is 166.
- She has produced 25 career double-double games and became the 7th to ever have 20 with her double-double vs. ODU on Jan. 19. The 25 are 4th most.
- Harris has played in 122 games at GSU, moving to the top of the list of all-time games played. The school best was 121 games by Evita Rogers.
