Georgia State came up with perhaps its best all-around effort of the season on Wednesday against its biggest rival.
The Panthers kept their composure under pressure down the stretch and beat Georgia Southern 82-78 in overtime before 1,875 feisty fans at the GSU Convocation Center.
The game, which featured 12 ties and 13 lead changes, tipped in Georgia State’s direction with 2:27 remaining in overtime on Zarique Nutter’s three-point play that put the Panthers ahead by four points.
Southern got as close as two, but Georgia State iced the game when Cesare Edwards and Jelani Hamilton each made a pair of free throws. The Panthers were 9-for-9 at the line in overtime.
Georgia State (6-10, 2-2 Sun Belt) has won two straight for the first time since late November.
“Tonight our guys just got committed to playing the right way,” GSU coach Jonas Hayes said. “This is our fourth (conference) game and I’ve seen some massive growth. We’ve challenged all our guys to show up with a mindset to play as hard as you can for as long as you can with the level of concentration that allows us to win. You’ve also got to have some intelligence and some urgency and a massively great attitude.”
Nutter missed the last game for undisclosed reasons and returned to form against Southern. The graduate senior transfer matched his season high with 22 points and had six rebounds.
“For us to have that type of production from him was really, really good,” Hayes said.
Cesare Edwards scored 20 points – his third time in four games – on 8-for-14 shooting with 11 rebounds. Toneari Lane scored 18 and was 8-for-8 at the line. Hamilton had just eight points on 1-for-9 shooting, but had nine rebounds and six assists.
“We knew it was going to be a fight any time you have a rivalry game like this,” Hayes said. “I thought for the most part our guys stayed together through adversity. We didn’t splinter and now we’re sitting here at 2-2.”
Georgia Southern (8-8, 1-3) got 19 points from Adante Holiman, who was playing for the first time since missing eight games with an elbow injury. The junior scored 19 and was tough to stop on drives to the basket. Dontae Horne scored 14 and Bradley Douglas added 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Panthers overcame runs of 9-0 and 8-0 by shooting 9-for-11 at the line, compared to 1-for-7 for Southern. Georgia State tied the game 38-38 at the half on a half-court buzzer-beating shot by Nutter, who took the inbound pass, made a couple of dribbles, shook a defender with his left arm and tossed in the desperation 3-pointer with his right hand.
“I was standing right in line with the ball and the bucket and I was saying to myself, ‘That joker is going to go in,’” Hayes said.
Georgia State lost starting 6-foot-9 forward Clash Peters with a shoulder injury in the first half. Peters will be examined and assessed on Thursday.
The Georgia Southern women won the opener 82-57. The Eagles (8-8, 1-3) ended a four-game losing streak behind McKenna Eddings, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Leah Johnson, who came off the bench to score 14 points and grab nine boards. Georgia State (7-8, 1-3) got 15 points from Eghosa Obasuyi and 12 from Kaleigh Addie.
The teams will play another doubleheader on Saturday at the Convocation Center. The women host Troy at 2 p.m. and the men play Coastal Carolina at 4 p.m.
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