The trouble with trying to slow Georgia State’s offense is that coach Ron Hunter has so many options, it’s difficult to know which one to try to take away.
“They can beat you in so many ways,” said Louisiana-Monroe coach Keith Richard, whose Warhawks on Thursday will try to become the first team this season to defeat the Panthers (18-7, 11-1) at the GSU Sports Arena. The Panthers lead the Sun Belt Conference and hold a three-game lead in the loss column over Western Kentucky with six games remaining.
The Panthers have reached this point, as Richard sees it, because their points can come from anywhere.
After Ryan Harrow did so in Monday’s win over Texas State, Georgia State has three starters who have surpassed 1,000 points in their career. A fourth, Manny Atkins, needs seven points to reach the mark.
So, trying to build a defense to stop one player, such as leading scorer R.J. Hunter, who knocked down his 1,000th point Saturday in a loss at Troy, opens room for another, such as point guard Devonta White, the first in the soon-to-be quartet to reach the points plateau.
That was the case in Georgia State’s 66-58 victory over the Warhawks (8-12, 5-7) earlier this season. Harrow led the team with 18 points, White added 17, Hunter 13 and Atkins 11. They provided 59 of the team’s 66 points. But the Warhawks made Georgia State work, and Louisiana-Monroe played good defense. Georgia State rallied from seven points down in the second half, despite shooting 38.6 percent in the game.
“That’s been the unique thing about their team this year,” Richard said. “Most good teams in our league have had maybe two (scorers) like that, two guys with that kind of skill level in their starting lineup, sometimes three. To have four is off the charts.
“That’s why they have the record that they have. It’s extremely difficult to figure out how to try to defend.”
Harrow said the team’s unselfishness is a key to the offense.
The soon-to-be four members of the thousand-point club have averaged between 11 and 19.8 points per game this season. Each has led the team in scoring at least once. Each has made at least 44 percent of his shots, more evidence that trying to stop one player may not be wise.
“We all work well with each other,” Harrow said. “If one person has it going, then we want to keep going to that person.”
There’s also no bona fide blueprint for defending the quartet.
Troy is the only team to defeat the Panthers in conference play this season, but Richard said the Trojans benefited more from a shooting streak that enabled them to make 12 3-pointers.
“It’d take us six games to make (that many) 3-pointers,” Richard said. “We might not try to follow that formula again.”
Richard said the key lies somewhere between trying to outscore Georgia State, which he said usually isn’t wise because the Panthers have averaged 78.9 points per game, and slowing the game to a crawl. The Panthers have won a few of those games this season, including Monday’s 68-41 win over Texas State.
“You’ve got to try to figure out how you can play both ends and get in the middle somewhere and beat them,” he said.
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