Another game, another milestone.
Manny Atkins became the third Georgia State player in less than a week to score the 1,000th point of his career in the Panthers’ 75-60 victory over Louisiana-Monroe on Thursday night at the GSU Sports Arena.
Atkins had no idea how close he was until his mother told him a few games ago that he was within 100 points.
“I don’t care about all that, but the more I thought about it the more I was like, that would be a good accomplishment to have,” he said.
Because everyone on campus was telling him, he said he knew he needed seven Thursday.
After R.J. Hunter did it against Troy and Ryan Harrow against Texas State, Atkins become the fourth player on the Panthers’ roster to reach 1,000 by making a free throw with 14:34 left.
“Once I hit that seven-point mark, that was something special for me,” he said.
Atkins finished with game highs in points (21) and rebounds (nine). White, the first member of the thousand-point quartet, added 20 points for the Panthers, who have won 16 of 17 and improved to 11-0 at home.
“I love at the end (of a season) when seniors play well because they don’t have many left,” Georgia State coach Ron Hunter said. “We needed our seniors to play like that.”
Georgia State’s (19-7, 12-1) magic number is two to clinch one of the top two seeds in the Sun Belt tournament. The first- and- second-place teams at the end of the regular season receive byes to the semifinals of the tournament, which will be held in New Orleans.
Georgia State has a three-game lead in the loss column over second-place Western Kentucky and a four-game lead over Louisiana-Lafayette with five games left. The Panthers will host Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday and could clinch at least a share of the regular-season title with a win and loss by the Hilltoppers, who will host Louisiana-Monroe. It will be Georgia State’s fourth game in a week.
The Panthers played without starting center Curtis Washington because he had strep throat. Denny Burguillos made his first start this season in place of Washington, whom Hunter said may return Saturday. But it was Markus Crider, normally Washington’s backup, who benefited most. He scored a career-high 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
“I thought our bench won the game with Markus and T.J. (Shipes),” Hunter said. “We need that. When you are playing all these games in so many days. A lot of our success late is coming from our bench.”
With Louisiana-Monroe (8-13, 5-8) packed into a zone, the Panthers fired 17 3-pointers, making five, in the first half. With those shots not falling, the Panthers built a nine-point halftime lead by forcing 10 turnovers that they turned into 14 points.
“We got a little impatient (shooting), which is what we did the first time we played them,” Hunter said.
The turnovers kept coming early in the second half as Georgia State increased its lead to 43-28. Harrow made a reverse layup off the first turnover and followed it with a rare dunk off a steal by Crider.
The Panthers stretched their lead to 56-38 on seven consecutive points by White. Atkins dropped in another 3-pointer to give Georgia State a 59-40 advantage.
The Warhawks fought back to cut Georgia State’s lead, which reached 21 on a dunk by Shipes with 10:16 left, to 10 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Chinedu Amajoyi, the last with 3:32 left.
But that’s as close as Georgia State would allow as they defeated the Warhawks for the second time this season.
