Perhaps more importantly, the Panthers maintained a solid chance of being one of the eight teams to advance to the Sun Belt tournament.
The game was won early with a 26-6 run that helped the Panthers to a 32-18 lead. The team set a season mark for scoring in a half by taking a 49-30 lead after the game’s first 20 minutes. They also set a scoring mark for a game this season. The previous best was 78 against IUPUI.
Georgia State 15-12, 8-10 Sun Belt) has won two of three after losing four consecutive as part of seven of eight.
Goodbye to the seniors. Markus Crider, T.J. Shipes, Kevin Ware and Jalen Brown were honored before the game for their contributions to the program. Shipes and Crider enrolled before the 2012-13 season, while Brown and Ware enrolled before the 2014-15 season. Shipes and Crider have been part of two Sun Belt regular season titles, while all four have been part of last year's regular-season title, Sun Belt tournament title and the win over Baylor in the NCAA tournament. Saturday's victory was their 80th, something Hunter noted after the game.
"That was my first recruiting class, and we told those guys to take a leap of faith," Hunter said. "What was big about tonight's win wasn't all the tournament seeding, when yo are a player and you walk into a program…to win 80 games in four years is a tremendous honor.
“They took a leap of faith and have been a tremendous group of athletes.”
Crider played in his 126th game on Saturday, tying Jihad Ali’s school record of 126.
Ware had 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, Shipes 11 on 5-of-7 shooting, Crider 9 on 4-of-7 shooting and Brown 3 on 1-of-4 shooting.
The student section serenaded the group with, “Thank you seniors,” as the left the court.
Next year’s group of seniors will include Jeremy Hollowell, Isaiah Dennis and Willie Clayton, a transfer from Charlotte who is sitting out this season. Dennis’ status could change if the athletics department requests a redshirt for Dennis’ freshman year.
Tournament updates. Georgia State entered Saturday in a three-way tie for sixth place in the conference with three games remaining. The Sun Belt's top eight teams will receive invitations to the conference tournament in New Orleans. Ninth-place Texas State trailed the sixth-place teams by one win. The Mountaineers (5-13), the 10th place team, will either be two or three games behind depending upon Saturday's other games.
With the win, the Panthers will at least stay in sixth place heading into Thursday’s game at Louisiana-Lafayette.
The Panthers are the defending Sun Belt’s regular season and tournament champs.
Putting away the game early. The key to first-half run that put away the game was the things that the Panthers have struggled with all season: rebounding, open looks on offense and fast-break points.
The Panthers outrebounded the Mountaineers by 19 in the first half, shot 57.1 percent and created eight fast-break points. There have been several games in which the Panthers scored zero fast-break points. In the game, Georgia State outrebounded by the Mountaineers by eight.
Hunter said it was the first time all season that the Panthers had more transition points than their opponent.
“I didn’t write many things on the board before the game but one of the things I did say was ‘Let’s score in transition and see what happens,’ ” Hunter said.
The team finished 17 assists compared to 8 turnovers. Hunter said the team is 10-2 when they have more assists than turnovers.
Georgia State’s rebounding was helped by App’s reliance on putting several players around the 3-point line, denying them chances to rebound. The fast-break points and open looks were partially the result of Georgia State converting six turnovers into 15 points.
Closing the door quickly. The Panthers have had leads in several games but have seldom been able to maintain them.
The Mountaineers weren’t able to cut enough out of Georgia State’s lead to make it sweat because the Panthers avoided the minutes-long scoring droughts on offense that have affected them throughout the conference season.
Georgia State’s longest scoring drought in the second half on Saturday lasted slightly more than two minutes.
“We were able to get into the lane and see some things,” Hunter said.
Williams still rolling. Isaiah Williams continues to thrive in his role an off-guard since being to there from the point six games ago. He had scored at least 10 points in four of the five games and added 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting on Saturday.
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