Dissatisfied with the result of their last game, Georgia State made sure there was no way it could lose to Tennessee Tech on Tuesday.
Behind 24 points from Devonta White and 17 from James Fields, the Panthers jumped on the Golden Eagles early and then kept going for a 74-43 victory in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament at the GSU Sports Arena. The victory made the Panthers (22-11) forget the close loss to George Mason in the second round of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.
“There was only two things would happen: a team that could feel sorry for themselves and go through the motions, or a team that played excited,” coach Ron Hunter said. “We played excited — excited to play at home, and it showed. You won’t see many scores like this in postseason.”
It was Georgia State’s first win in a postseason, nonconference tournament, since it beat Wisconsin 50-49 in the first round of the 2001 NCAA tournament. It also came 10 years to the day since the last time it played in a postseason, non-conference tournament: a 64-62 loss to Tennessee Tech in the NIT.
That game was in Cookeville, Tenn. Tuesday’s demolition occurred in the Sports Arena, where the Panthers improved their record this season to 13-3.
Georgia State made seven 3-pointers and created 18 turnovers, stats that Hunter said he has waited for all season.
White said it took a while for the team to get over losing in the CAA tournament because they wanted to play in the NCAAs. But he said they realized they couldn’t dwell on the 61-59 defeat too long because there were other goals.
“We knew we wanted to play in a tournament,” he said.
Georgia State next will play at Mercer at 4 p.m. Saturday.
“We want to win the next one, whatever the next one is,” Hunter said before he knew his team’s next opponent. “We know we can come in and play hard. We wouldn’t mind going to Hawaii if we can play there.”
The Golden Eagles were a high-scoring team, averaging 72.6 points per game with a roster filled with eight players from Georgia, the same amount as on Georgia State’s. Their season featured a 50-point game by former Creekside standout Kevin Murphy, who ranks 10th in scoring average (21.1 points per game) in Division I.
However, he struggled most of the night against Georgia State’s various pressure defenses and matchup zones. Murphy finished with seven points on 3-of-11 shooting. The Golden Eagles missed 20 of their 22 3-pointers, and shot 28.3 percent from the field.
“We’ve killed zones all year; it’s hard to zone us usually,” Tennessee Tech coach Steve Payne said. “We kind of quick-triggered some stuff and got out of our comfort zone. They had a lot to do with that. They whipped us in all phases.”
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