Panthers Lethal From Line, Hold Off Late-Surging ULM

Panthers Lethal From Line, Hold Off Late-Surging ULM

Georgia State (16-9, 9-5 in Sun Belt) exorcised their recent late-game demons and hit free throws down the stretch to hold off the comeback attempt of ULM (6-17, 2-12 in Sun Belt), winning 77-69 and snapping a two-game skid. The Panthers shot 22-of-25 (88%) from the line as a team, including many late free throws to clinch the win. Kane Williams led the efforts in that regard, shooting a stellar 13-of-14 from the charity stripe to give him a game-high 19 points. Senior Damon Wilson broke out of a scoring slump to score 14 points, including three three-pointers. Tyree White continued his excellent work against Georgia State this season, tallying 19 points to make him the Warhawks’ top scorer in both matchups this season.

The Panthers paced the action to start, jumping out to an 8-1 lead on good early perimeter shooting. Georgia State held leads of 17-11 and 26-17 during the first 20 minutes, but the Warhawks stayed in the game and the hot shooting for the Panthers cooled off down the stretch, as they went 1-for-11 down the stretch to hold onto a halftime advantage of just 32-29.

Following their form of late, Georgia State stormed out of the second half and used complementary play on both sides of the ball to push their three-point lead at the break to 56-40, their largest of the game, with 9:42 remaining. The Warhawks fought back, though, and rattled off a 9-0 run to cut the deficit back to single digits and forced multiple Panther turnovers in their zone defense to continue chipping away at the lead. Coming out of the final media timeout, it was just a 63-58 lead for Georgia State and ULM was at the line shooting free throws. But Youry White missed the front end of his one-and-one and a Corey Allen three-pointer at the other end pushed it to an eight-point lead and the Panthers closed the game out from the line.

Georgia State comes back home next week to host the Carolina schools, first facing the Mountaineers of Appalachian State on Thursday night. Tip-off from the Third Floor is at 7pm EST.