Hoping to send its six seniors out with a historic victory, Georgia State instead lost to Old Dominion 65-60 in overtime Wednesday night at the GSU Sports Arena.
The Panthers failed in their effort to win their 20th game this season — a feat achieved just three times in school history and not since 2003-04 — in large part because they gave up a season-high 25 offensive rebounds and had 15 turnovers.
As a result, the Panthers also lost a chance to keep alive their hopes of earning the fourth seed in the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association tournament. The Panthers can go for their 20th win at William and Mary on Saturday.
“Against a good team you can’t give up 25 offensive rebounds and turn the ball over 15 times and win,” a flu-weakened coach Ron Hunter said. “We didn’t care so much about the seeding. We wanted to win our 20th game at home.”
The Panthers were hampered by an injury to senior Jihad Ali. He scored 15 points in the first half, but Hunter said he wasn’t the same player after getting hit in the midsection by an opponent’s elbow with 8:19 remaining in the opening quarter. He made just one of his seven shots after halftime after making seven of nine in the first half.
The Panthers’ Eric Buckner also suffered from the flu. Buckner finished with seven points, 10 rebounds and six blocks, giving him 104 in his career. He’s the sixth player in conference history to block 100 or more shots.
“I don’t know how he did it,” Hunter said. “He fought through it.”
With those two players suffering, Old Dominion dominated the glass, including two key stretches during the second half.
With the Panthers leading 54-51, Brandon McGee’s pass was stolen by Donte Hill. Kent Bazemore missed a 3-pointer, but Old Dominion’s Chris Cooper got the rebound and got the ball back to Bazemore, who made the game-tying 3-pointer with 2:08 left.
Less than a minute later, Bazemore missed another jumper, but grabbed the rebound and fed it to Dimitri Batten. He missed his layup, but got the rebound and put it back in to tie the score at 56-56 with 1:05 left. The Monarchs finished with 52 rebounds, five more than Georgia State’s worst mark this year.
Bazemore, the conference preseason player of the year, wasn’t finished.
He made a 3-pointer in overtime with a Georgia State defender on top of him to give the Monarchs a 61-56 lead. He finished with 19 points.
The Panthers cut that lead to 61-60 on a Buckner free throw followed by an Ali 3-pointer. He finished with a game-high 20 points.
The Panthers elected to foul Nick Wright with 26 seconds left. A 62.5-percent free-throw shooter, he made both to give the Monarchs a 63-60 lead. Ali missed a follow-up 3-pointer.
The Monarchs tightened their defense in the second half. After Georgia State shot 50 percent in the first half, they shot 31.8 percent in the second and 16.7 percent in overtime.
“They [the seniors] are disappointed,” Hunter said. “Senior nights are tough because there’s this whole emotional game. Every one of these kids, they don’t want this to end. Think about this, think about going three, four years and never winning.
“Ali is taking it the worst right now, but we’ll be back and go play Saturday and get ourselves back for the CAA.”
