Rob Lanier is teaching his Georgia State team how to play man-to-man defense almost 100 percent of the time in his first season as head coach.
Facing a different offensive scheme for the fourth straight game, the Panthers were up against the tricky five-man motion attack of Texas-Arlington on Thursday. Their effort answered a lot of questions that Lanier may have had about his guys.
The Panthers passed the test thanks to a solid defensive effort that has marked the series between the two teams. On Thursday it was Georgia State that again came up with the key stop, the big rebound or the loose ball when it mattered most and the Panthers took an 83-77 win at the GSU Sports Arena.
The victory extended Georgia State’s winning streak to six games and its home-court winning streak to 10. It was the Panthers fifth straight win over UT-Arlington.
"There's a lot of discipline that goes into trying to guard all those kinds of actions and those styles, so it's an underrated thing for this group to have managed that over the last four games," Lanier said. "This was a real test."
Damon Williams led Georgia State (7-3, 1-0 Sun Belt) with 22 points, making 7 of 14 from the field, and adding six rebounds and five steals. Wilson fell two points shy of his career high of 22 set earlier this season against Brewton-Parker. Kane Williams had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists, Justin Roberts had 15 points and six rebounds and Jalen Thomas scored 11 points and blocked three shots.
"This win was a byproduct of some grit that we showed as a team," Lanier said. “It wasn't a clean game. But what I said to the guys is, imagine if we play well. You know how good we can be."
UT-Arlington (4-8, 0-1) got 23 points from David Azore and 19 from Tiandre Jackson-Young. Georgia State forced 20 turnovers and cashed them in for 17 points. The Panthers limited UT-Arlington to only 12 offensive rebounds.The Panthers were close to running away with it early. A 14-0 run, sparked by a pair of 3s and a fast-break basket by Nelson Phillips, gave Georgia State an 20-8 lead with 10:09 left in the half.
But the Panthers squandered numerous chances – once failing to score on a 3-on-1 break – and UT-Arlington began to peck away. The Mavericks slowed the momentum wit a 6-0 run and went on a 10-0 lead to grab a 33-29 lead. UT-Arlington led 35-33 at halftime, thanks largely to its eight second-chance points and shooting 11-for-11 from the line.
"I think we had some open court opportunities that we didn't take advantage of," Lanier said. "And then we did get a little overzealous at times. We had some opportunities. We had a stretch in the first half that we had nine consecutuve defensive stops and we didn't capitalize."
Georgia State tied the game 40-40 on a Wilson layup with 18:21 left in the game, but neither team was able to take control until the Panthers went on an 8-0 run midway in the half. A layup by Jalen Thomas put Georgia State ahead 62-52 with 7:23 remaining.
