The emotional roller-coaster that is Georgia State’s basketball season continues on Thursday at Appalachian State.
A few days after falling to Louisiana-Lafayette 87-54 in the worst defeat under coach Ron Hunter, the Panthers bounced back to defeat rival Georgia Southern 69-66 in overtime on Tuesday in an electrified GSU Sports Arena.
“I told my guys right after this game that I’m changing my life insurance policy,” Hunter said. “This group here takes you to the limit.”
The Panthers (12-4, 5-2 Sun Belt) will need to play more in Boone, N.C., like it did during a key stretch in the second half against the Eagles than it did in most of the game against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Trailing by 10 with 16:53 to play — the Panthers had difficulties rebounding on defense and stopping the Eagles’ 3-point shooters — Georgia State used a 16-2 run to take a 47-41 lead with 10:49 left.
T.J. Shipes and Isaiah Dennis, known more for their defense than offense, sparked the run and were praised by Hunter afterwards. Shipes scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, both career highs after scoring just two points with no rebounds against Louisiana-Lafayette.
“I didn’t have a very good game last game, didn’t rebound well, didn’t score much, fouled out,” Shipes said. “We don’t lose here, especially back-to-back to Lafayette and Southern, the two most important teams to the guys that have been here. I didn’t want it to happen again.”
Dennis scored eight points with three key steals.
“Isaiah Dennis coming off the bench was terrific,” Hunter said.
Now the Panthers must quickly turn their attention to the Mountaineers and a place with a negative history for the team.
Appalachian State (4-13, 2-3) defeated the visiting Panthers 74-69 last year, mostly by hitting 12-of-29 3-pointers, including Frank Eaves connecting on 8-of-14. Led by Eaves, who leads the Sun Belt in scoring (20.3 points per game) and 3-point shooting (44.7 percent), the Mountaineers are hitting a Sun Belt-best 36 percent of their 3-pointers this season.
Stopping 3-point shooters has been an issue in Georgia State’s losses and close games. Louisiana-Lafayette hit 11, tying for the most allowed by the Panthers this season, and the Eagles hit 6-of-14 in the first half before going cold in the second half and overtime to finish 9-of-27.
Despite their 3-point misses, the inexperienced Eagles (10 players sophomores or younger) still pushed the experienced Panthers (starting three seniors and a redshirt junior) to the limit, largely because of poor GSU decisions resulting in turnovers in the final minutes and overtime.
“We don’t play smart all the time, we don’t have the highest basketball IQ,” Hunter said. “But we do have character.”
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