Gameday: Bulldogs visit Georgia State

ATLANTA -- The Alabama A&M men's basketball team is in "Hotlanta" tonight to take on Georgia State.

The Panthers (5-3) are members of the Sun Belt Conference, which includes recent A&M opponent Troy University.

After this game, the Bulldogs (0-8) have two more nonconference games before starting their Southwestern Athletic Conference schedule Jan. 2 when Jackson State visits Elmore Gym.

Alabama A&M visits Bowling Green (Ohio) State on Dec. 22 (11 a.m. Central tipoff) and close out at Western Michigan on Dec. 29 (6 p.m. Central start).

All of the games can be heard on WJAB-FM 90.9 and wjab.org with Michael Burns on the play-by-play. Tipoff for the Georgia State game is 6 p.m. Central time.

The Georgia State game can also be seen on Watch ESPN at www.espn.com/watchespn/index and viewed on Live Stats at www.georgiastatesports.com/liveStats/v2/basketball/index.dbml?GAME_STAT_ID=2900673&db_oem_id=12700.

BULLDOG BITES

DISHING IT OUT: Senior Rakiya Battle, the SWAC's top assists player in each of the past two seasons, is third in the league with an average of 4 assists per game.

OLYMPIC TIES: The Georgia State Sports Arena, home of the GSU basketball and volleyball programs, hosted the badminton competition in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

THIRD TIME A … This is the third meeting all-time between the Bulldogs and Panthers in basketball. The two teams played twice in 2000 with Georgia State winning both.

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDS: Quinterian McConico has led the Bulldogs in rebounding every game but one. He is averaging 7.3 rebounds per game – sixth in the conference.

TRIPLE TEAM: A trio of Bulldogs is among the SWAC's top 25 scoring leaders: Quinterian McConico and De'Ederick Petty are tied at No. 21 averaging 10 points per game each and Rakiya Battle is right behind them at No. 23 with an average of 9.6 points per game.

ALL-CONFERENCE
Seniors Rakiya Battle and Quinterian McConico were named to the preseason All-Southwestern Athletic Conference second team.

Battle led the SWAC in assists in each of the last two seasons. He had 5.3 assists per game last season and 6 per game in 2014-15. Battle, a point guard with great hands, was second in the SWAC with an assist/turnover ratio of 2.6. In 2014-15, he had a 3.0 assist/turnover ratio.

McConico was a strong force inside for the Bulldogs last season with a .643 shooting percentage from the field. He scored a career-high 18 points against rival Alabama State last season in one of his seven starts.

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Players Mentioned

#3 De'Ederick Petty: G; 6' 1"; Freshman

#10 Rakiya Battle: G; 6' 1"; Senior

#42 Quinterian McConico: C/F; 6' 8"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#3 De'Ederick Petty
: 6' 1"; Freshman
: G

#10 Rakiya Battle
: 6' 1"; Senior
: G

#42 Quinterian McConico
: 6' 8"; Senior
: C/F

Players Mentioned

#3 De'Ederick Petty

#10 Rakiya Battle

#42 Quinterian McConico

Players Mentioned

#3 De'Ederick Petty

#10 Rakiya Battle

#42 Quinterian McConico