Albany State women drop one-point decision to Georgia College

ALBANY — Robert Skinner slowly walked along the baseline in front of the Albany State bench. With arms folded, Skinner’s expressions summed up the Lady Rams’ performance.

After twice rallying from seven-point deficits in the second half, Albany State couldn’t figure out a way to finish off Georgia College Tuesday night in its regular-season home opener at the HPER Gymnasium, dropping a 45-44 decision.

“That’s seems to be the story of our life,” Skinner said of his team falling behind, then rallying to get itself back into the game before being unable to finish.

“We’ve done that time and time again and not be able to finish the game. I don’t know what it’s going to take for us to finish games.”

Albany State (0-5)did have a chance to potentially win the game in regulation. The Lady Rams inbounded the ball with 14 seconds left, but Zuri Frost took an off-balanced jumper that failed. After a scuffle for the ball, officials ruled a jump ball, put two tenths of a second back on the clock and awarded the ball to Georgia College.

Skinner said the plan was for Frost to pass inside, but when the play didn’t develop at first, the senior guard took an “ill-advised shot.”

He said he would had rather her drive the lane and take her chances since the Lady Rams were in bonus.

Albany State shot just 21 percent (10 of 48) from the floor, while shooting 63 percent (25 of 40) from the free throw line.

Ashley Johnson and Kayla Green led the Lady Rams with nine points apiece. Green also pulled down nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. Frost and Uche Ibebunjo finished with eight points each.

ASU trailed by seven before Elesha Foster sank a pair of free throws for the first points of the second half. The Lady Rams finally caught Georgia College at 32, but the Lady Bobcats used a free throw, then a basket from Ana Anderson with a second left to give them a 35-32 advantage at the end of the third quarter.

But much like they did in the third, ASU started slowly to open the fourth while two baskets helped the Lady Bobcats to a 39-32 lead.

After Anderson hit a shot off the glass with 4:03 left, the Lady Rams went on a 7-0 run to grab its first lead of the second half on a running jumper from Raven Wynn to make it 44-43 with 1:33 left.

But Georgia College couldn’t stop Anderson inside the paint in the closing minute. Her putback with 15 seconds left gave the Lady Bobcats a one-point advantage.

“I was pleased defensively with our effort, but we’ve got some work to do on our offense,” Skinner said. “We lost our last game by three, then tonight by one, so I guess we’re getting there.”