Georgia State coach Ron Hunter ran up and down the sideline, the tails of his blue jacket flapping behind him as he frantically waved his arms, trying to get the crowd to give his team the last push it needed.
Trailing by six when Hunter temporarily forgot about the X’s and O’s in favor of “Let’s go,” the move helped his team, but it wasn’t enough. Virginia Commonwealth held on, despite four Georgia State 3-pointers in the final three minutes, to defeat the Panthers 59-58 on Saturday.
The loss snapped the Panthers’ season-long winning streak at home at 10. Jihad Ali led Georgia State (14-8, 6-5 Colonial Athletic Association) with 18 points. Troy Daniels led the Rams with 15 points, all on 3-pointers.
Afterward, an exhausted Hunter said he could see that his team, playing its fifth game in 11 days, was out of gas.
“We needed the crowd to help us,” he said.
The crowd at the GSU Sports Arena responded by pushing the volume to a level it hasn’t reached this season, shaking the floor and seats with their cheers. It didn’t affect VCU (18-5, 9-2), at least not at first.
The Rams pushed their lead to 54-45 on a three-point play by Bradford Burgess on their next possession.
“That was a huge play for us,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said. “It stemmed the momentum.”
Riding the energy, the Panthers used a 3-pointer by Devonta White to cut the margin to six. Back-and-forth baskets ensued until Josh Micheaux made a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining to cut the Rams’ lead to three. Briante Weber answered by making one of two free throws to give VCU a four-point lead with five seconds to play.
Micheaux banked in a 3-pointer to cut the margin to one, but with less than a second left on the clock, the Panthers didn’t have enough time to foul.
The Panthers tried to get Micheaux’s first 3-pointer off earlier in the shot clock, but Hunter said they couldn’t get the ball to Ali, who was closely guarded.
“Most teams would falter, especially playing a VCU, but these kids didn’t,” Hunter said. “It was a one-possession game.”
Ali said that despite the long stretch the team has played, the crowd did give he and his teammates a boost.
“I’m pretty tired,” he said. “But we knew we had the crowd behind us. We knew we could beat them. They got the best of us tonight.”
With seven conference games remaining, the Panthers still can secure one of the top four seeds in the CAA tournament if they finish strong. They will take another step toward that goal at North Carolina Wilmington on Wednesday. The Seahawks were beaten by Towson on Saturday, ending the longest Division I losing streak at 41 games.
“I told the guys when we walked onto the floor, ‘I came here to put Georgia State in meaningful basketball games,’” Hunter said. “At the end of the day, we belong. We don’t believe in moral victories, but I’m proud of them.”
About the Author
