ATLANTA – D’Marcus Simonds tallied 29 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots, and Georgia State held Georgia Southern without a field goal for the final 4:39 of the game in an 81-72 Sun Belt men’s basketball win over the Eagles Saturday afternoon in GSU Sports Arena.
The Panthers earn a point in the Southern vs. State Rivalry Series and now lead it 6-4 after earning two points in basketball today.
Quan Jackson scored 16 of his game high 20 points in the second half and added three rebounds and a pair of steals. Isaiah Crawley finished with 15 points and three rebounds, and Tookie Brown posted 11 points and six assists. Simeon Carter chipped in 11 points, seven rebounds and a blocked shot.
The score was tied 69-69 after the last media timeout with 3:51 to play, and Georgia State (16-6, 7-2) pulled away with a 12-3 run. The Panthers went 3 for 5 from the field, and Kane Williams made all six of his free throws, while Georgia Southern (13-9, 5-4) missed three shots, had two turnovers and made 3 of 4 from the charity stripe.
Georgia State used a 10-2 run, keyed by four points from Williams and a triple by Simonds, to open a 37-27 lead late in the first half. Montae Glenn (10 rebounds) scored on a putback to halt the run, and Brown added a runner with 2.2 seconds left in the stanza to trim the margin to 37-31 at halftime.
A 9-2 run, capped by a Jackson 3-pointer, gave the Eagles a 47-46 cushion early in the second stanza, and the game featured 11 lead changes and four ties the rest of the way.
State forced 15 Southern turnovers and turned them into 20 points. It was the Eagles’ ninth straight loss to the Panthers in Atlanta, a streak that dates back to 1992.
“We played exactly how we are supposed to for the most part for 36 minutes and about 15 seconds," GS coach Mark Byington said. "We played tough and aggressive and made plays and handled the environment and adversity. Then we came out of that timeout, and we were passive. The shots became a little tougher and they made a tough one that gave them the lead. We let some things compound and the game got away from us.”
The Eagles continue their three-game conference road trip at Louisiana Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Lady Panthers 83, Lady Eagles 66
STATESBORO — Georgia State women's basketball hit nine first-half three-pointers, building a 22-point halftime lead en route to an 83-66 Sun Belt Conference victory over host Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Panthers improved to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the Sun Belt with the win, while Georgia Southern fell to 6-14 overall and 1-8 in the league with the loss. The win also gives Georgia State a point in the 2019 Southern vs. State Rivalry Series standings. Coupled with the Georgia State men's basketball win today, Georgia State now leads the series 6.0 to 4.0.
Georgia State, who entered the contest shooting just 28 percent from beyond the arc, hit 9-of-14 three pointers in the first half (64.2 percent) to build its halftime advantage. The Eagles tried to rally in the third quarter, hitting 6-of-9 threes of their own, but the closest Georgia Southern would get would be 13 points late in the fourth quarter.
K.K. Williams led a trio of Georgia State players in double figures with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor, including 6-of-8 from three-point range.
Allison Johnson added 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor. Hailey Dias-Allen led the Eagles with a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds, while
Alexis Brown and Nakol Franks each chipped in 15 points.
Dias-Allen recorded her second career double-double as an Eagle by hitting 5-of-10 shots from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line en route to her game-high 16 points.
The Eagles trailed the Panthers by seven, 30-23, with 5:50 left in the second quarter after a layup by Victoria Stavropoulos, but Georgia State would finish the quarter on a 17-2 run to take a 22-point lead at the break.
The Eagles return to action on Thursday, hosting Louisiana in a 6:30 p.m. Sun Belt Conference contest at Hanner Fieldhouse.
