Lady Dogs roll in season opener

ATHENS - Transfer forward Porsha Phillips was impressive in her debut with Georgia. But Lady Dogs coach Andy Landers feels she can do better.

``Phillips is a great athlete,'' said Landers. ``When she gets in better shape, she will be even better.''

Phillips scored 15 points, grabbed eight rebounds and four steals to help Georgia rout Alabama State 85-35 on Saturday in the season opener for both teams. Phillips was a reserve on LSU's Final Four Team in 2006-07.

``She's been waiting a long time,'' said point guard Ashley Houts, who scored 14 for the Lady Dogs. ``She's a fun player to watch and to play with.''
Landers said his team needs to improve defensively.

``We had three post players who stood and watched too much,'' he said. ``When the play came to Porsha, she would jump up and block it and look great, but she did not go to the play enough.''

Georgia was never seriously threatened by the Hornets. The Lady Dogs met three team goals in rebounding margin (44-34), turnover margin (15-29) and free-throw margin (24-10).

``On effort, I might give us an 80 or an 85,'' Landers said. ``But on being effective, just about a 65. We just about always had one or two players who were not playing hard.''

Phillips added: ``I was focused for this game because it will determine how we play for the rest of the season. We still have some areas we need to concentrate on, like deflections.''

Erica Lumpkin scored 12 points all on 3-pointers for the Hornets (0-1).

``I think the main thing that hurt us today was that we were just plain out-manned,'' said Alabama State coach Freda Freeman-Jackson. ``Georgia is just more athletic than us, and I think that athleticism was obvious in the amount of turnovers Georgia was able to come up with.''

Danielle Taylor and Christy Marshall, high school teammates at Beach High in Savannah, scored 12 and 11, respectively, for Georgia, which played everyone who dressed out.

Despite Landers' concern about Georgia's defensive lapses, Alabama State failed to score a field goal the last 17 minutes of the game. The Hornets were held to 13 points in the second half.

Georgia went on a 12-0 run in the first half to build a 20-6 lead just six minutes into the contest. Houts started the run with a steal and a layup and Phillips capped it with a jumper.

Georgia improved its all-time record in season openers at home to 14-1.