Georgia State’s men’s basketball team is in a tournament, just not the one it wanted.
The Panthers’ historic run through the Sun Belt, and its dreams of playing in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, ended with an 82-81 overtime loss to Louisiana-Lafayette in the finals of the conference tournament on Sunday.
Instead, the Panthers (25-8) will travel to Clemson on Tuesday in the first round of the NIT. Georgia State qualified for the NIT because it won the Sun Belt’s regular-season title.
Coach Ron Hunter said his team would regroup to do their best in the NIT, but his countenance and words made it obvious that Sunday’s final was a disappointing end to a dominating conference season.
To his right, Manny Atkins and R.J. Hunter, their eyes filled with tears, did their best to answer questions. R.J. Hunter finally broke down, putting his head in his jersey as his father looked on.
“As much as it hurts we want it to hurt because it’s part of the maturation process,” Ron Hunter said.
It hurts because it didn’t seem probable.
Georgia State went 17-1 in the conference to clinch the top seed in the tournament. Along the way, Ron Hunter was named the coach of the year and R.J. Hunter the player of the year. Three more players, Ryan Harrow, Atkins and Devonta White, also earned all-conference honors.
“After all we did this season, we didn’t want this to end right now,” Atkins, a senior, said. “It hurts bad.”
Behind a masterful 37-point performance from Harrow, Georgia State seemed to have the game won. He burned through the Cajuns’ defense for 10 consecutive points to give Georgia State a 10-point lead with 4:39 left.
Tired of seeing Harrow’s success, Louisiana-Lafayette coach Bob Marlin did two things that changed the game.
He switched to a zone defense for a few plays, which he said can be dangerous to do late, especially against a good 3-point shooting team.
But the call, which he described as “gutsy,” changed the flow of the game for a split-second, which is all that was needed.
Secondly, Elfrid Payton, the Sun Belt’s defensive player of the year, asked to switch from guarding R.J. Hunter to Harrow whenever the Cajuns went back to a man-to-man defense. Marlin said yes.
Perhaps because Payton was following him step for step, Harrow began to tire, according to Ron Hunter. Georgia State’s offense began to sputter, resulting in just one field goal in the final 5:21. Ron Hunter said they were playing to get to the bonus, where they could seal the game with free throws.
But they had trouble getting to the line, shooting just two free throws in the final four minutes of regulation.
“We did some things out of character, some bonehead plays and they did some great plays,” R.J. Hunter said.
One of those uncharacteristic plays was a turnover by White, who was stripped by Kevin Brown. He got the ball to Payton, who hit a layup to cut Georgia State’s lead to 72-70 with 46 seconds left in regulation.
And then rebounding, an issue for Georgia State all season, finally caught up to them at the worst time.
The Cajuns outrebounded the Panthers by 16 and grabbed 20 on the offensive end. None was bigger than Shawn Long’s in the final seconds of regulation. He grabbed a miss by Payton and scooped the ball to Bryant Mbamalu for the shot with 1.5 seconds left that sent the game into overtime.
“Rebounding was a factor,” Ron Hunter said. “That’s a strength of theirs and we didn’t take it away.”
The Panthers had a chance to win the game in overtime and the ball was in the hands of Harrow, their most dangerous player in the tournament.
He drove the lane, as he had done throughout the game, but this time the Cajuns forced him wide. Harrow threw up a shot that bounced off the rim.
“He was due for a miss,” Payton said, seemingly meaning it more of a compliment than a slight.
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