Myrtle Beach, S.C.?Jack Leasure scored 18 points on six three-point field goals as Coastal Carolina rallied for a 79-68 victory over Georgia State Saturday night at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Trae Goldston scored a season-high 20 points for Georgia State, which led by 16 points at halftime before the Chanticleers rallied in the second half.
Goldston hit six three-pointers, including five in the first half to help the Panthers (3-7) take a 41-25 advantage into the locker room. State still led by nine points at 49-40 with 14 minutes to play when Coastal Carolina (6-5) used a 14-2 run to take a 54-51 lead at the 9:46 mark. Leasure tied the game with a three-pointer, and then Everage Richardson, who scored 16 points on the night, completed a three-point play to give the Chanticleers their first lead since the opening minutes.
State managed to regain the lead briefly at 58-57 on Deven Dickerson's putback with 7:38 left, but Steven Sexton answered with back-to-back three-pointers as Coastal established a 62-57 lead with 5:22 to play. The Chanticleers made 11 of 14 free throws down the stretch, including a pair of three-point plays, to close out the win.
“We made shots in the first half because we worked hard on offense to get good shots, but then we lost our intensity in the second half,” said Georgia State head coach Rod Barnes, who saw his squad shoot 54 percent and make eight of 13 threes in the first half. “The more aggressive team in the second half won the game.”
State committed only 12 turnovers for the game, but they came at crucial times during Coastal's second-half comeback , leading to 20 points for the Chanticleers.
“We had some very untimely turnovers against their pressure in the second half,” said Barnes. “It's a very disappointing loss because we worked on that press all week in practice. We did a good job handling it in the first half but obviously not in the second half. We let a game get away that we should have won.”
Leasure and Richardson were two of the four players in double figures for Coastal, which shot just 28 percent in the first half before hitting at nearly 60 percent in the second half. Phil Wallace contributed 15 points off the bench, and Anthony Breeze added 11 points.
Leonard Mendez scored 14 points for the Panthers, while Rashad Chase had eight points and nine rebounds.
Goldston, the sophomore from Decatur, Ga., came off the bench with the hot hand in the first half as he nailed five three-pointers on six attempts before finishing with six treys on 12 tries. In the Panthers' last game, he went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc and scored 18 points, giving him 38 points and 10 triples in the two games.
The Panthers now break for Christmas before returning to action next Saturday, Dec. 29, hosting Bethune-Cookman at 7:30 p.m. at the Georgia State Sports Arena.
