Georgia State took a step backwards on Thursday, failing to build on the momentum from last week’s back-to-back road wins, and succumbing to the sort of mistakes that veteran teams typically avoid.
There wasn’t one main culprit in the 67-63 loss to Troy at the GSU Sports Arena. It was poor shooting, costly turnovers, unwise decisions and errors at key times that derailed the Panthers.
“We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds in this game,” GSU coach Rob Lanier said. “I told our team after the game that we lost this game on Tuesday. Just our approach on the practice floor wasn’t good enough. It’s a tough loss and guys are taking it hard. I guess that’s a good thing.”
The loss leaves Georgia State at 8-10 overall and 2-5 in the Sun Belt Conference, 0-4 at home.
“This game was particularly disappointing,” Lanier said. “An area we’ve struggled all year is on defense and then the second half we held them to 26% from the field and 12% from the 3-point line.” The Panthers created 22 turnovers.
But the breakdown came on offense. Georgia State had only three assisted baskets, shot 33% from the floor, was 6-for-22 on 3s and gave it away 14 times. Once the Panthers failed to inbound a ball cleanly coming out of a break. Another time a player inbounded the ball to a teammate who stepped out of bounds as if to inbound the ball.
“We had some critical turnovers by guys that we rely on,” Lanier said. “It made for some really tough decisions late in the game. We still had our chances and we just didn’t play well enough.”
The Panthers had their best chance to seize the momentum with 5:30 left in the game. A 3-pointer by Corey Allen cut the lead to one and after the play Troy’s Rifen Miguel threw a punch at Georgia State’s Jalen Thomas, earning him an ejection. Allen made one of the two technical fouls and made a jumper on the ensuing possession to give the Panthers a 56-54 lead – a six-point swing.
But it was all for naught. Troy put up five straight points and never again relinquished the lead.
“That was definitely an opportunity where we finally got a chance to take a lead and build it out,” Lanier said. “Now we can try to build on it and build some momentum and we were getting enough stops, but it was the offense that was hurting us.”
Georgia State had its opportunities in the final minute. The Panthers trailed by two points with 49 seconds when Justin Roberts missed a shot. With 27.9 seconds left, Eliel Nsoseme could not make two free throws that would have tied the game. It wasn’t just Nsoseme; Georgia State was 15-for-27 from the line.
The Panthers still had a chance, trailing by three with 20.3 seconds left, but Kane Williams’ drive to the basket was no good and Troy’s Zay Williams snagged the rebound and put it away with two free throws.
Georgia State got 17 points and five rebounds from Roberts and 15 points from Corey Allen. Nsoseme had 13 rebounds before fouling out.
Troy (15-7, 6-3) was led by Efe Odigie with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Kieffer Punter and T.K. Smith each scored 12.
Georgia State struggled from the floor in the first half, missing a slew of layups early and shooting just 32% from the field. Troy shot 52%. That was compounded by its lack of success on the boards, as Troy outrebounded the Panthers 22-14, with 16 of those coming on the defensive end, limiting the Panthers to one shot. Troy got hot in the final four minutes – outscoring GSU 13-4 to take an 11-point lead. A desperation 3-pointer by Allen at the buzzer cut Troy’s lead to 34-26 at halftime.
Georgia State plays again on Saturday at home against South Alabama. The Panthers lost to the Jaguars 74-65 in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 13.
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