A miserable shooting performance sentenced Georgia State to its third consecutive loss Saturday.
The Panthers made only 34.5% of their field-goal attempts and only 2 of 18 3-pointers — a season-low 11.1% — and were beaten 77-63 by Charlotte at the GSU Convocation Center.
GSU (4-6) made only one of its first seven shots and never got its offense in gear. The 63-point effort was the second lowest output of the season.
“It plays on your mind, but you’ve got to have the intestinal fortitude, the mental toughness,” Georgia State coach Jonas Hayes said. “So when your shot is not falling, you have to find other ways to impact the game.”
The bright spot on offense was Zarique Nutter, who made 7 of 10 shots and scored 19 points. Nick McMullen and Toneari Lane both scored 13 and had six rebounds, but Lane made only 2 of 13 3-point shots.
Charlotte (5-4) got 19 points from Robert Braswell, 15 from Nik Graves and 13 points and seven rebounds from Jaeshon Thomas. Charlotte improved to 29-3 all-time against Georgia State.
“I thought our guys played hard in stretches,” Hayes said. “I don’t think we played very smart defensively. I thought our effort was there. It’s just hard to overcome when we’re not shooting as well as we have been accustomed to. Not an excuse, but I thought Charlotte really, really played well in our gym.”
Despite the horrid shooting, Georgia State had a 10-9 lead — its only lead of the game — before the 49ers went on a 16-6 run and took a 25-16 lead at 3:18. Charlotte led 32-25 at intermission.
“We had some decent looks, but we just didn’t knock them down,” Hayes said. “Sometimes that’s the case, and the defense is supposed to carry you through those moments. We just had critical breakdowns at inopportune times.”
Charlotte grew the lead to 15 points when the Panthers tried to get back in the game. GSU cut the lead to eight on a three-point play by Nutter, only to have 6-foot-8 Georgian Nika Metshvrishvili — he’s from Tbilisi — halt the momentum by drilling a 3-pointer. Georgia State never got closer than nine.
It doesn’t get any easier. Georgia State travels to Auburn on Tuesday for its third game against SEC competition, before starting Sun Belt Conference play Saturday at Troy.
“We’ve got a lot of courage in this locker room,” Hayes said. “That’s the little voice in the back of your head that tells you to mail it in and you said, you know what, I’m going to get up and we’re going to try this thing again. And that’s what we’re going to do. That’s the next step.”
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