On a day when leading scorer R.J. Hunter was slowed by flu-like symptoms, the Georgia State basketball team was happy to have Ryan Harrow in the wings.
The 6-foot-2 senior from Marietta sparked a 20-3 run in the first half and equaled his season high with 27 points to lead Georgia State to a 68-55 win over Southern Miss on Sunday at the GSU Sports Arena. It was the 16th straight home win for the Panthers.
Harrow topped the 20-point mark for the eighth time this season. He made 11 of 21 from the floor, including five 3-pointers. He had three assists and three steals for the Panthers, who won for the sixth time in their last seven starts.
“In the shoot-around this morning, I said everyone has to step up and Ryan knew that,” coach Ron Hunter said. “I looked at him and said, ‘I’m really talking to you.’ If he gets 10, we could have been in trouble.”
Hunter got a phone call on Saturday night from his son, who was running a 102-degree fever. By Sunday morning it didn’t appear that R.J. Hunter, eighth in the NCAA with 22.1 points per game, was going to be able attend the game, let alone play. But he told his father about 11 a.m. that he was going to give it a try. He had an IV before the game and another at halftime and responded with 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds in 31 minutes.
“My hat’s off to him because I don’t know how he was able to do it,” coach Hunter said. “His presence on the floor … I look at his numbers – 13, seven and five — I didn’t do that when I was good. Just shows you the type of player he really is.”
Georgia State (7-3) bounced back after Wednesday’s overtime loss at Old Dominion. The Panthers also got eight points and three assists from Kevin Ware.
Southern Miss (5-5) was led by guard Chip Armelin with 16 points, which included four 3-pointers. Rasham Suarez also had four 3-pointers and scored 12.
The Panthers raced ahead to stay thanks to a 10-3 run midway through the first half. The hot streak continued with another 12-3 spurt that gave Georgia State a 34-18 lead with 4:10 left. Southern Miss stayed close thanks to its 3-point success. The Golden Eagles made seven 3-pointers in the half, four of them from Armelin, the last one at the horn that trimmed Georgia State’s lead to 38-29.
Georgia State was opportunistic in the first half. Southern Miss committed 11 turnovers, many of them unforced errors, that led to 16 Georgia State points. GSU had only one turnover in the first half. The Golden Eagles wound up with 22 turnovers.
Southern Miss got as close as five points when it scored the first four points of the second half, but that only served to aggravate the Panthers. GSU went on a 16-2 run and took a 54-35 lead with 9:26 left on Harrow’s layup.
Georgia State is off until Dec. 27 when it play at Wisconsin-Green Bay in the Sun Belt Conference opener.
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