Georgia State men’s basketball coach Ron Hunter said his team is two possessions away from being undefeated in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Both of the Panthers’ CAA losses came on the road, including Wednesday’s at Northeastern, and both came down to the game’s final minute. In both, the Panthers’ (13-5, 5-2 CAA) offense failed to surpass 60 points.
To try to take pressure off his defense and relax his offense, Hunter will make a change to the starting lineup for Saturday’s game at Delaware (7-10, 3-4): Brandon McGee will start in place of Josh Micheaux.
“We hope it will open up the game a little bit for us,” Hunter said.
McGee has averaged 3.9 points per game this season, but can make the 3-pointer or drive the lane. Hunter said the Panthers’ past two opponents, Northeastern and Towson, rarely tried to defend Micheaux or James Fields. Instead, knowing the Panthers have struggled shooting jumpers this season, the Huskies and Tigers packed their defense inside to try to prevent center Eric Buckner from posting up in good position.
“It’s stymieing our offense right now,” Hunter said.
Hunter said if the Panthers can score 60 points, he thinks they could win 90 percent of their games. The Panthers have surpassed 60 points just once in the past six games, but are 9-0 in the past 15 games when hitting that mark.
“If we get it, we will be really hard to beat on the road or at home,” Hunter said. “I’m not talking about making everything, just somebody that can just make two or three. It opens everything up.”
The Panthers have made a respectable 43.7 percent of their shots, which is second in the CAA. But they have made only 30.6 percent of their 3-pointers, ninth best in the conference.
“We have to hit home runs defensively because we aren’t the best offensive team,” Hunter said.
McGee, whom Hunter said before the season had a chance to be special because of his versatility, said he hopes he can be the player to open things up. He scored a season-high 31 points in a game last season, and ended the season averaging 7.8.
This season, he has averaged only 11.7 minutes per game, almost eight less than he played last season. But by playing more minutes Saturday, he said he hopes he can get a better feel for the game and score more points.
“But it starts with defense,” he said. “As long as I play with energy I’ll be fine.”
That the Panthers had a chance to defeat the Huskies on Wednesday is a testament to their defense. Northeastern had the hot hand, making eight of its 10 3-point shots in the first half to build a 35-31 lead. Hunter said it looked as if his team had forgotten its principles on defense.
The Panthers tightened up in the second half and had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds, but Jihad Ali missed a 3-pointer. After making 57.9 percent of their shots in the first half, the Huskies made 33.3 percent in the second half, including three of 11 3-pointers.
“We can’t give up the 3-point line, we just don’t have the offense,” Hunter said.
