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MOREHEAD, Ky. – Senior guard Almesha Jones registered game-highs of 26 points, 10 assists and five steals to help the Morehead State women's basketball team to a 74-72 triumph over Georgia State Sunday at Johnson Arena.
Morehead State improved to 4-5 overall, 2-1 at home and halted a two-game losing skid. The Panthers lost for the third straight game to slip to 3-3. It was MSU's first win over in three tries.
Jones scored 24 of her season-high point total in the second half, including a 12-of-14 effort at the free throw line. She was perfect on all eight charity tosses in the final 36 seconds as the Eagles thwarted a Panther rally.
"Almesha has played a lot of minutes lately," Head Coach Greg Todd said. "But she has an athletic frame, and we need and enjoy having her out on the court. With the media timeouts being every four minutes or so, players do get breaks. I want to give (senior forward) Casey Ryans credit too. She was able to find Almesha on those tightly-guarded inbounds passes late in the game, and anytime you have a free throw shooter that's hot, you want to get the ball in her hands."
Morehead State led 61-52 with 4:25 remaining, but Georgia State's Makeba Ponder connected on a trio of three-pointers to keep her team within reach. Her final trey cut the MSU lead to just 72-70 with six ticks left before Jones sank her last two free throws.
The hosts had a 21-14 assist-to-turnover ratio against a Panther team that had been forcing more than 20 opponent mistakes per game. GSU held a 43-32 rebounding cushion, but the visitors collected just four offensive boards in the second half after getting 14 in the opening period. The Panthers had only four second-chance points after halftime.
"While they did out-rebound us, I felt we were more aggressive in the second half in limiting their second chances," Todd said. "Shay Steele and Eriel McKee were important in us narrowing the rebounding gap."
McKee, a freshman forward, scored all 14 of her points in the first half to push the Eagles to a 27-23 lead at the break. She also added nine rebounds, one short of her career-high, and a career-high four blocked shots. McKee has reached double figures in all six collegiate games now. Steele, a sophomore forward, netted 17 points, eight rebounds and a career-best five blocks. Jones, McKee and Steele played all 40 minutes.
Jones needs only one more steal to become the first player in program history with at least 1,000 career points, 400 assists and 200 steals.
Morehead State shot 45 percent (25-of-56) overall, including 50 percent (14-of-28) in the final half. The Eagles limited GSU to just 22 percent (7-of-32) in the opening 20 minutes, but the Panthers heated up to 53 percent (17-of-32) following intermission. Georgia State did not hit its first field goal until 12 minutes remained in the first half, starting 0-for-11.
Ponder, who had hit only nine three-pointers entering the day, finished with a team-best 21 points. Kayla Nolan chipped in 16. Brittany Logan pulled down a game-best 14 rebounds.
Morehead State is idle until Dec. 15 for semester final exams this coming week. The Eagles will host East Tennessee State on the 15
th for an Education Day game at Noon ET.
"This should be a great week for us," Todd said. "We want the players to focus on school and do well on their tests, but I think we should have an opportunity to get a lot accomplished in practice too. We have had a lot of time on the road, and it will good to be at home, get in the gym, and continue to work on some things we can get better at."
