JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Everything looked rosy for the Georgia State basketball team with 7:39 remaining. The Panthers had a 13-point lead and the rowdy fans at Jacksonville State’s Pete Mathews Coliseum had been muted.
But after a series of poor decisions – on offense and defense – the Panthers saw their advantage disappear and what seemed like a for-certain win vanish, sending them on the three-hour ride back home with a 72-67 loss.
“We played well for probably 30 minutes,” Georgia State coach Jarvis Hayes said. “That’s clearly not good enough to win at any level. I saw a lot of good, but at the end of the day, a loss is a loss, and I couldn’t be more disappointed.”
Georgia State (1-2) got 17 points from Toneari Lane – all in the first half – plus 17 points from Zarique Nutter and 15 points from point guard Malachi Brown. And until the final eight minutes the team was poised to come away with a big road win.
That’s when things went sideways. A quick shot here, a bad miss there and a suddenly-hot Jaron Pierre Jr. and the momentum quickly shifted toward Jax State. Pierre scored a game-high 27 – 12 in the final five minutes, including a slam with 2:10 left that tied the game and left the crowd fully engaged.
Jacksonville State took the lead when a ball bounced off the hands of 6-foot-10, 280-pound behemoth Mason Nicholson and into the basket for a 67-65 lead. That was part of a 17-2 run that Georgia State could not stop.
“I thought our guys were a little selfish – multiple guys – were a little selfish down the stretch and that’s not winning basketball,” Hayes said. “We’re going to move forward. We’ll get better for it. But we’ve got to learn the skill of playing and working for each other, not just with each other. That’s a different level of camaraderie and connectedness that we need to acquire.”
There were positive signs. Jelani Hamilton came off the bench and buried a pair of 3-pointers. Nick McMullen had a season-high 14 rebounds and blocked a shot. Brown ran the offense with confidence and had four assists and two steals. Lane made five 3-pointers in the first half but went 0-for-3 from distance in the second half.
But GSU made no field goals in the last 5:06, missed its last 11 shots and made only 1 of its last 15.
Hayes was especially disappointed with the selfishness that seemed to creep in during the late-game meltdown. That had not been evident in the two previous games.
“We lost our connectedness,” he said. “That’s what selfishness does. It snowballs. I love these guys. I believe in them. That’s just something we have to address.”
The game marked the resumption of a series that began in 1956, but had been dormant since 2008. The Jax State staff included Patrick Moynihan, the coordinator of basketball operations, who is the grandson of former GSU coach and hall of famer Lefty Driesell.
Georgia State is off until Monday when it hosts Toccoa Falls at the GSU Convocation Center.
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