Georgia State’s Ron Hunter celebrates winning the Sun Belt on Saturday. (Curtis Compton / AJC)
After defeating Georgia Southern 72-55 on Saturday to repeat as the Sun Belt regular-season champion, Georgia State earned the top seed in the conference tournament.
The Panthers won’t play until the tournament’s semifinals at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Georgia State could play one of three teams: fifth-seeded Texas Arlington, eighth-seeded Texas State, which will meet in the tournament’s opening round, or fourth-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette, which defeated them in overtime in the tournament finals last year.
The championship game will be at 1 p.m. Sunday and will be on televised on ESPN2.
Georgia State is 2-0 against Texas-Arlington, handling it fairly easily.
The Panthers are 1-1 against Texas State. The loss was in overtime and included a banked-in 3-pointer made by someone who had never even taken a 3-pointer in Division I college hoops.
The Panthers are 1-1 against the Cajuns, which have won five consecutive games. This is the team that no one wants to face in the tournament.
I’m sure Georgia State would love to get revenge on Lafayette by knocking them out, but with Ryan Harrow’s gimpy hamstring, this will be a tough matchup. Remember that Harrow ripped apart Lafayette’s defense in the finals last year.
2015 Championship Schedule
Thursday, March 12 (Opening Round)
G1: No. 5 Texas-Arlington (10-10) vs. No. 8 Texas State (7-13), 6 p.m. (ESPN3)
G2: No. 6 South Alabama (9-11) vs. No. 7 Arkansas-Little Rock (8-12), 8:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
Friday, March 13 (Quarterfinals)
G3: No. 4 Louisiana-Lafayette (13-7) vs. Winner G1, 6 p.m. (ESPN3)
G4: No. 3 Louisiana-Monroe (14-6) vs. Winner G2, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
Saturday, March 14 (Semifinals)
G5: No. 1 Georgia State (15-5) vs. Winner G3, 2 p.m. (ESPN3)
G6: No. 2 Georgia Southern (14-6) vs. Winner G4, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
Sunday, March 15 (Championship Game)
G7: Winner G5 vs. Winner G6, 1 p.m. (ESPN2)
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