Not even a slump-busting career night from Jeremy Hollowell can stop Georgia State’s skid.
Hollowell scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his first career double, but the Panthers were beaten in overtime by South Alabama 79-78 on Thursday. Georgia State (13-9, 6-7 Sun Belt) has lost five of its last six games and will now face Troy, traditionally a tough opponent for the Panthers, on Saturday in what may be a must-win game for the team team to eventually qualify for the Sun Belt tournament.
“This is a tough loss,” coach Ron Hunter said in the game story written by the athletics department. “Our guys fought hard and made some big shots, but we could not get the last one to fall down in the final seconds. Where we struggled was at the free throw line and that proved to be the difference.”
Here are seven observations about the game as well as Saturday’s:
Hollowell rebounds, mostly. Hollowell was in a slump offensively and defensively heading into Thursday's game. He had hit just 29.5 percent of his shots in the past six games and his tendency to drift wide while playing in Hunter's zone defenses was being exploited. To try to help him, Hunter said he didn't want him to worry about scoring against the Jags, he only wanted him to worry about rebounding. After being shut out in last week's loss to Texas-Arlington, Hunter wanted him to grab seven rebounds on Thursday.
It seemed to help.
Hollowell had 10 points and seven rebounds with seven minutes remaining in the first half. Things then began to turn. He scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds in the remaining 32 minutes. It was a very good night, but the fact that the rebounding waned may still be a concern.
Turning to the other struggling player. Hollowell wasn't the only player struggling in his first season playing under Hunter at Georgia State.
Isaiah Williams, who transferred from Samford, is also having issues that continued in Thursday’s loss. He missed 11 of his 14 shots, including a potential winning layup with five seconds. Before Thursday, he had hit 50 percent of his shots just once in the past 10 games and five times all season.
Free throws. For the second consecutive game, the Panthers were dominated at the free-throw lane, which can be considered a reflection of the team's lack of aggressiveness in attacking the basket on offense. The Jaguars hit 28-of-36 free throws, compared to the Panthers' 12-of-19. In last week's 21-point loss to Texas-Arlington, the Mavs hit 28-of-35 free throws. Georgia State finished hitting 21-of-32, but most of those came in the final minutes when the game was already decided. Conference opponents have hit 217-of-304 free throws compared to Georgia State's 187-of-274.
Interestingly, Hunter played freshman Austin Donaldson, a point guard like Williams, his first meaningful minutes in a conference game. He finished with two points and two assists in 10 minutes.
Wasted effort on offense. The loss marred what may have been Georgia State's best effort on offense in conference play this season. The Panthers' eight 3-pointers were the most than they had hit in the previous seven games. Their 43.9-percent shooting was second-best in the past six games.
A familiar issue on defense. South Alabama took its final lead on a 3-pointer by Nick Stover with 16 seconds remaining. The Jags hit 7-of-17 3-pointers. Including Thursday, Georgia Sate's past eight opponents have each hit at least six 3-pointers.
Turning to Troy. Add all of Georgia State's issues together in the past few games and it spells trouble for the Panthers at Troy. In their previous meeting, a 72-68 win for Georgia State, the Panthers had a 21-point lead early in the second half that was cut to four with 10 seconds left.
The Trojans nearly completed the rally by hitting six 3-pointers in the second half.
Lastly, the tournament. Georgia State has seven conference games remaining. It is in seventh place in the Sun Belt and only the top eight teams will make the conference tournament. The Panthers are one game ahead of eighth-place South Alabama (5-8) and two games ahead of Texas State (4-9) and Appalachian State (4-9), which are tied for ninth. Troy (7-17, 2-11) is in last place. The Panthers need to defeat the Trojans because they still have games remaining against first place Arkansas-Little Rock (11-2), second place Louisiana-Lafayette (10-3) and third place Louisiana-Monroe (8-5). There are also games against Georgia Southern and Arkansas State, which are both 7-6 in the Sun Belt and also trying to secure the best possible seed in the tournament.
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