Georgia State is headed to the NCAA tournament after defeating Georgia Southern 38-36 on Sunday in the championship game of the Sun Belt tournament in New Orleans.
A year after losing to Louisiana-Lafayette in overtime in the final, the Panthers advanced on two free throws by R.J. Hunter with 21.6 seconds left.
Georgia Southern missed two 3-pointers in the final seconds, either of which would have won the game.
Georgia State hasn’t been to NCAA tournament since 2001, when it famously upset sixth-seeded Wisconsin 50-49 in Boise, Idaho. The Panthers were beaten by Maryland in the next round. Georgia State also made it in 1991, where it was thumped by Arkansas in the first round in Atlanta.
The Panthers were led by Kevin Ware’s 18 points. Ware, who transferred from Louisville in the offseason and suffered a gruesome broken leg two years ago, hit 8-of-17 field goals. He was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
The first half featured either great defense by both teams or great nervousness by the offenses because Scoring droughts were as common as beads.
Georgia State took a 19-16 lead on the strength of Ware, who started for the injured Ryan Harrow and led all scorers with 11 points. Harrow, the conference’s leading scorer, made just a cameo because of his injured hamstring.
Ware had no problem slicing through Georgia Southern’s defense. Jelani Hewitt was the scoring threat for the Eagles, hitting two long 3-pointers to keep the game close. Georgia State repeatedly picked up Hewitt several feet outside the 3-point line in an attempt to keep him from even attempting long 3-pointers. On defense, Hewitt, the Sun Belt’s defensive player of the year, draped himself on R.J. Hunter, the conference’s player of the year who scored 35 points against the Eagles in their regular-season finale.
Trailing the whole game, the Eagles took a 30-29 lead on a layup by Mike Hughes with 9:32 left.
But the Ware answered with a 3-pointer from the left wing after some nice passes to put the Panthers back in front, 32-30.
Hunter was whistled for his fourth foul with 8:11 left as he ran into Hewitt, who leaned in to draw contact in a play worth of an experienced senior. Hewitt hit both free throws to tie the game at 32.
With no Harrow and Hunter on the bench, coach Ron Hunter was forced to find points from anywhere.
They proved hard to come by.
Hunter came back and tipped in his own miss with 5:29 left, but Eric Ferguson hit two free throws to tie the game with 5:06 left.
After Georgia Southern missed a one-and-one opportunity, Markus Crider converted one to give the Panthers a 36-34 lead with 3:24 left.
Trent Wiedeman hit two free throws after being fouled by Curtis Washington to tie the game at 36 with 1:55 left.
R.J. Hunter missed a 3-pointer and the Eagles grabbed the rebound, calling timeout with 1:26 left.
Hewitt was forced to shoot a 3-pointer as the shot clock neared zero. After bouncing around the rim, Georgia State grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 46.7 seconds left.
After a mad scramble following a miss by Ware, Crider rolled the rebound out to Hunter along the 3-point line. He took a dribble and leaned into Curtis Diamond as he flew at him, drawing the foul with 21.6 seconds left.
Georgia Southern missed an open 3-pointer, but Diamond grabbed the rebound and was able to call timeout before falling out of bounds with 5.1 seconds left.
