Can Georgia State find its focus in time?

So Thursday’s game is the only one that coach Ron Hunter and his players say they are focusing on because if they don’t win, nothing else matters.

“Start looking at big picture and you lose perspective,” Hunter said.

Focus, and consistency, has been the problem this season. But the odds seem good that the Panthers can make it past at least its first game.

Georgia State swept Texas State in its two meetings this season, 58-46 in San Marcos, Texas and 59-56 in Atlanta. Its defense played well in both meetings. It allowed a season-low in points in the first game, and just 36 percent shooting in the second half of the second game.

Defense, for the most part, isn’t why the Panthers are the tournament’s sixth seed after being picked in the preseason to finish second.

Offense is why the team faces its four-game gantlet.

Fifty-plus points in the two games against Texas State is a bonanza compared to what the Panthers scored in defeating Georgia Southern 38-36 in last year’s conference tournament finale. But that was a Georgia State team that had the potential in conference games to score as many as it needed.

This year’s team has seldom shown no such potential, which is why 58 and 59 points is not far below the season average of 65.9, which is among the worst of more than 300 Division I teams.

But senior Kevin Ware said they are improving on offense, noting that the team scored and stopped the team from scoring in its 72-69 win over Louisiana-Lafayette in second-to-last regular-season game. Part of the improvement began when Ware and Austin Donaldson began to split time at point guard, with Isaiah Williams moving to off guard, a position that seems to suit him.

“It was the first game where it felt like Georgia State,” Ware said.

His next sentence, though, tells the season’s tale.

“And then we played Monroe,” he said.

While the offense scored 78 points – its third consecutive game scoring at least 72 – the defense collapsed in giving up a season-high 91 points in the loss.

“We have to do it every night,” he said.

To put both offense and defense together will require focus.

Though the season is hanging by a thread, and four seniors may have just one game remaining, focus still seems to be an issue.

T.J. Shipes, one of the seniors, didn’t like what he saw from the players in practice on Monday. Because he said this trip to New Orleans means a lot, he went to the players individually and talked about the need to do better.

Now, it remains to be seen if they can focus and put both offense and defense together on Thursday.

“You have to give your all,” Ware said. “There’s no tomorrow. If you lose, that’s it. I don’t know how you get to it, but it’s one thing you have to have. Why wouldn’t you give your all on Thursday to try to win the game?”