Carrington Love scored 28 points and Green Bay finished the game on a 16-1 run to defeat Georgia State 78-61 on Saturday.
The Phoenix (10-3), who are 5-0 at home, led 62-60 with 4:35 left in the game when Love and Daeshon Francis combined to score the next 12 points to extend Green Bay’s advantage to 74-60 with 1:55 left.
Francis scored all six of his points in that stretch.
Georgia State (7-4), which led by 11 points in the first half, missed all four of its field-goal attempts and went 1-for-5 from the free-throw line in the final 3:35.
“When you come on the road, you know that you have to play to a certain level, and unfortunately we did not do that,” Georgia State coach Ron Hunter said. “We played OK in spurts, but you have to do better than that over the course of 40 minutes. That has been our struggle in our four losses on the road this year.”
The Panthers defeated Green Bay 72-48 in Atlanta on Dec. 4, but Love, who entered averaging 8.6 points a game, was 10-for-14 from the field with four 3-pointers as Green Bay shot 53.8 percent from the field (28-of-52).
Georgia State’s high scoring duo of R.J. Hunter and Ryan Harrow was held to more than eight points below their combined 41.4 points entering the game.
Despite making just seven of his 18 shots from the field, Hunter led the Panthers with 19 points. He was particularly inaccurate from 3-point range, going 1-for-8.
Harrow had 14 points, but failed to score in the second half. He finished with six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
They combined to shoot 14-for-37 from the field as the Panthers shot 44.6 percent for the game (25-of-56) and just 2-for-13 from the 3-point line.
Jordan Fouse scored 14 points with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals for the Phoenix. Keifer Sykes scored 13 points and Alfonzo McKinnie added 11 for Green Bay.
The Panthers went on a 15-0 run in the first half to take a 29-18 lead with 4:51 left before halftime.
Georgia State’s advantage was short-lived as the Phoenix outscored the Panthers 17-6 to tie the game at 35 on Love’s jumper with 39 seconds to play.
The Panthers led 58-57 with 5:59 left in the game.
Georgia State begins a three-game homestand with its Sun Belt opener against Louisiana-Monroe at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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