Staying in the race for the Sun Belt title was somewhat important to Georgia State coach Ron Hunter after his team defeated Troy 75-64 on Saturday.
Still having a chance to earn one of the conference tournament’s top two seeds was very important to Hunter. The Panthers (20-9, 13-5) can defend their title and clinch the top seed with wins in their final two games.
But Hunter was most excited Saturday for the seniors because the team won its 20th game.
“That mark of 20 wins is big in college basketball, and we’ve done it three of our four years,” he said. “Some of these guys have been a part of it the entire time, and that’s huge.”
As bad as Georgia State’s defense looked earlier in the week, it looked that much better in the first half Saturday. After being bombarded by a season-high 14 3-pointers and 92 points by Arkansas-Little Rock on Thursday, the Panthers held Troy to 37.5-percent shooting in the first half and forced the Trojans to miss 12 of their 16 3-pointers in the game.
The win, coupled with Louisiana-Monroe’s loss to Appalachian State, means the Panthers and Warhawks are tied for second in the Sun Belt, a half-game behind Georgia Southern, which played Saturday night.
Georgia State will play at Louisiana-Monroe on Thursday and will host the Eagles in the regular-season finale March 7 at the GSU Sports Arena. If Georgia State wins both, it will repeat as conference champion and earn the top seed in the tournament in New Orleans.
“Right now it’s about that conference tournament,” Hunter said. “We would love to win the Sun Belt and would love to have that No. 1 seed, but more importantly, we want to go into that conference tournament playing well. Seeding is more important than anything to us. There are certain matchups we don’t want to see.”
The outcome Saturday was rarely in doubt.
With defensive intensity that was missing in Thursday’s loss, Georgia State went into the half with a 14-point lead. The Panthers increased the lead to 21 with a 7-0 run on baskets by Ryann Green, Curtis Washington and Crider to open the second half.
Ryan Harrow led Georgia State with 17 points. Crider scored 13 and grabbed six rebounds.
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