Georgia State needs to keep winning

Georgia State can maintain its important place in the Sun Belt standings, and set up a showdown at Georgia Southern next week, if it can defeat Arkansas State on Saturday at the GSU Sports Arena.

The Panthers (14-7, 7-3) are tied with Louisiana-Monroe for second, which comes with a bye in the first round of the Sun Belt tournament. The surprising Eagles (14-4, 7-2) lead both by one-half game. The Panthers and Eagles will play in Statesboro on Thursday.

Georgia State nearly blew its spot after falling behind by 11 on the road at Texas-Arlington on Thursday. But R.J. Hunter and Ryan Harrow combined to score 57 and rally the Panthers for an 88-74 victory.

“Two of the better players in the league played like it and took over the game,” coach Ron Hunter said.

R.J. Hunter made six of his seven 3-pointers in the second half to finish with 32 points. It was the second time this season that the defending Sun Belt Player of the Year has scored at least 30 points.

“He’s been waiting for a game like this,” Ron Hunter said.

Harrow scored 25 and needs five points to become the fifth player in school history to reach 1,000 in his career.

“Those two guys that are playing like guys who want to get into the (NCAA) tournament,” Ron Hunter said. “We want to be playing our best basketball, and I think we are doing that right now.”

The Panthers were helped by making 25 of 27 free throws, an uncharacteristically high percentage for them this season. R.J. Hunter, Harrow and Markus Crider combined to make 17. The team had made only 68.3 percent of its free throws this season. That percentage was among the lowest in the conference. The Panthers were one of the nation’s best free-throw shooting teams last season.

“I’ve said, you make free throws and take care of the ball, and you will win 95 percent of your games,” Ron Hunter said. “We only had nine turnovers.”

The team won despite playing Kevin Ware being suspended for the first half for a violation of team rules. He returned in the second half and had four points and two rebounds.

The win was also the 350th of Ron Hunter’s coaching career.