R.J. Hunter: ‘Shooter, shooter, shooter’

Hunter tied Hamilton at 1,515 points with a free throw in Monday’s win at Arkansas State. Hunter can take over the record with a point in Saturday’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette at the GSU Sports Arena.

Perhaps the tie-breaking point will come as his first points did at Duke: with a layup on the game’s first possession.

“That bucket was tough to get,” Hunter said. “I was really slow then. I remember thinking I was 2 steps ahead of the defender and he caught up. It rolled out and rolled back in.”

Perhaps it will come like his best basket did in beating Towson later that season: a game-winning 3-pointer.

“I was 32-33 feet away,” he said. “I knew it was cash when I let it go. I fell and looked to the side and knew.”

Either way, Hunter has piled up a lot of points in a short time. He is the Division I leader in points scored for players in their third season, according to Georgia State.

“To break the all-time scoring record, and to do it in less than three years, is a major, major accomplishment,” his father and coach Ron Hunter said. “I’m really proud of him.”

As Hamilton said, it is a pretty shot.

The key for Hunter starts with his feet. He needs to get his feet set, and he can do it in a split-second as he comes off screens. From there, he jumps straight up. His long arms extend. His wrist pops. The ball floats out of his big hands. When he makes, it’s usually a swish. When he misses — and there have been more this year than in his first two seasons as teams target him — it often bounces around the rim. There are the occasional whiffs when his fundamentals break down, but the ugly misses aren’t as frequent as the thought-he-made-it misses.

The shot is pretty enough that Hunter projects as a first-round pick in the NBA draft, should he leave Georgia State after this season. When it’s pointed out that he has 1 1/2 years to extend the record, he laughs and answers, “I like how you said that.”

Ron Hunter grunts and his head gives a slight tilt before he says, “I hope he makes the right decision.”

R.J. Hunter said he never thought about breaking the mark until last year, when Devonta White moved into third on the list last year. That prompted Hunter to start looking at the list and doing some calculations.

“Once I heard of it I wanted that record, that’s something every recruit aims for,” Hunter said. “Every recruit, everybody who plays basketball at Georgia State will look at that. That means a lot to me.”

He said the record has been on his mind the past few weeks, though he has done as much as possible to not let it affect him.

He forbade the sports information department six weeks ago from telling him how many points he had.

He didn’t even know that he had tied the mark Monday until after the game, when the sports information department broke the countdown embargo.

“I never would have thought, when he signed here, that he would be doing what he’s doing,” Ron Hunter said.

Georgia State has a modest ceremony planned before the game to honor R.J. Hunter tying Hamilton, who will be in attendance.

It will be the first time he has met Hunter, other than to shake his hand after the Panthers defeated Tennessee State 59-57 two years ago.

Hamilton has no negative feelings about his record being broken. It wasn’t a record he intended to set. Because he was a point guard, he was more interested in setting records for assists, a mark he holds (535), and owning other categories that reflect the value of a point guard.

Hunter said the only other record he would like to have is for wins. He wants that more than the scoring record. That record of 83 is held by Lamont McIntosh and Donnie Davis. The Panthers have won 52 games since R.J. Hunter enrolled. Should R.J. Hunter stay for his senior season, that mark may also become his.

But Saturday will be about the scoring record, as the Panthers try to stay on course to defend their Sun Belt Conference title.

“My record couldn’t be broken by a more special player,” Hamilton said.