The tempo of the game was set early for Georgia State on Thursday night. Malik Ferguson and Jelani Hamilton tied up a Marshall player in the backcourt to force a five-second turnover, which caused both to break into a celebration akin to making a game-winning buzzer beater.
It was the sort of effort that coach Jonas Hayes had demanded after last week’s woeful road trip. And while Georgia State (7-13, 3-5 Sun Belt) came out on the losing end of a 92-79 decision to Marshall at the GSU Convocation Center, the Panthers went down fighting for 40 minutes. GSU has lost three straight.
“I thought our guys played with effort again. I told them in the locker room that’s the baseline onto us having any type of success, how hard you play, how consistently hard you play,” Georgia State coach Jonas Hayes said. “I thought for the most part our effort was there. Again, we do not believe in moral victories. We’ve got to be consistent at a high level.”
Hayes bemoaned not gaining an advantage on a handful of 50-50 balls, but otherwise the effort numbers were there. GSU had 14 offensive rebounds, 33 overall rebounds, came up with six steals and committed only four turnovers – its lowest number of the year.
Marshall (12-9, 5-3) used an 11-2 run to take a 21-19 lead, but GSU kept the Herd close and had a 41-40 lead at the break. The Panthers led 60-55 with 12:01 remaining when Marshall went on a 15-0 run – including 10 straight points from all-conference center Obinna Anochili-Killen.
“Out mindset going into every game is to come out hard,” said senior center Cesare Edwards. “I feel like we played extremely well together and we handled adversity really well in the first half. In the second half, to piggyback on what coach said, we can’t let missed shots determine our defense and rebounding and that’s something we’re going to work on for sure.”
Edwards finished with 21 points, his sixth game with at least 20 points, and nine rebounds. Nick McMullen added 12 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth double-double. Toneari Lane scored 18 before fouling out. Ferguson played a season-high 25 minutes and scored a season-high nine points.
“Me and Nick make a great tandem,” Edwards said. “It’s kind of like I’m the finesse guy and he’s the brute. We complement each other and I feel like the more we continue to play the more chemistry we’ll build.”
But with a short bench – forward Zarique Nutter and guard Darnell Evans are both “under the weather” and forward Clash Peters is at least another week away from returning from a shoulder injury – the Panthers ran out of steam in the second half.
“I don’t want to make excuses. Our guys are well-conditioned,” Hayes said. “Either you’re going to find a way or you’re going to find an excuse. We’re not trying to find excuses.”
Anochili-Killen, a long-limbed 6-8 senior, finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks for Marshall. Jalen Speer, a graduate transfer from Florida A&M, made five 3-pointers and scored 25. Grad senior Mikal Dawson had 17 points and seven rebounds.
The energy was appreciated by the student section, which packed their end of the arena on Greek Night.
“We knew Marshall was going to have a crowd here and we appreciate everybody that came out, especially the students, to support us,” Hayes said. “It definitely made the atmosphere a ton better.”
The Panthers play again on Saturday at home against James Madison at 4 p.m.
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