When Jonas Hayes got his Georgia State team in the locker room after Saturday’s win over Arkansas State, he took the dry erase marker and wrote “1-0″ on the board.
He could have added the word “Whew!”
The Panthers (6-6, 1-0 Sun Belt) blew an 18-point second-half lead and still came away with a 91-90 win over the Red Wolves (4-9, 0-1) at the GSU Convocation Center. The victory ended Georgia State’s eight-game Sun Belt Conference losing streak and was another step in the team’s development in Hayes’ second season at the helm.
“Tonight represented the resiliency our team has acquired since June,” Hayes said. “There’s no shame in bending, right. But you absolutely cannot break, and I thought we showed that. That’s a little bit of growing up with our team.”
Arkansas State, which trailed 65-47 with 13:52 left, tied the score 89-89 on a 3-pointer by Avery Felts with 12 seconds left. But the Red Wolves fouled GSU’s Dwon Odom on the trip down the court with 7.8 seconds remaining, and he made both free throws to give the Panthers a two-point lead.
“I always think about my AAU coach, who passed away a few years ago, when I’m on the free-throw line,” Odom said. “He was always on me growing up about free throws. And my mother, when I was at the free-throw line, she was looking at me like, ‘You know what you’ve got to do.’ So it’s all about staying focused.”
Following a timeout, Arkansas State cleared the left side of the lane for Caleb Fields to drive, and he was fouled with 2.8 seconds. Fields made the first free throw, but his second attempt barely reached the rim, and the loose-ball scrum ended in a jump ball. Arkansas State inbounded with 0.2 seconds left, and Odom swatted it away as time expired.
“Dude is the No. 1 athlete in the Sun Belt,” Georgia State’s Lucas Taylor said of Odom. “Dwon is an athlete, so when I saw him jump like that, that’s him. He’s a high-level athlete, and he does great things like that.”
It was one of the better games of the season for Odom, a preseason all-Sun Belt selection. A junior from Alpharetta, Odom scored a season-high 24 points to go with three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Georgia State also got 16 points from Taylor, among them a 3-pointer as the 24-second clock was about to expire at 1:31 that prevented further erosion of the lead. Jay’Den Turner scored 13 points and had a game-high 12 rebounds.
Arkansas State got 21 points from Felts and 20 points, five rebounds and six assists from Fields.
The first half was tight, with neither team leading by more than five until the Panthers closed with a flurry. Arkansas State led 37-36 with 4:49 remaining when Georgia State outscored the Red Wolves 14-2 and went into halftime with a 50-39 lead. GSU scored the final eight points of the half, and Taylor punctuated with a straight-on 3-pointer with two seconds remaining.
The Panthers went cold from the perimeter in the second half, missing all seven 3-point shots. But they benefited from a lack of turnovers; GSU had only four all game, resulting in only two points for Arkansas State.
“I don’t think we would have won this game (a month ago),” Hayes said. “I think our guys have (become) closer over the break the last couple of games, and the level of cohesion is almost like cement now. If we can continue to build on that, I think you’ll see this team continue to have some success. We can celebrate this one for a moment. I really don’t know who we have on the schedule next week, but we’ll ready to dig into them starting (Sunday). We’re hungry for more.”
Georgia State has a two-game road trip next week, playing at Southern Miss on Thursday and at South Alabama on Saturday.
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