Boston, Mass.-Georgia State fell at Colonial Athletic Association leader Northeastern, 62-53, Wednesday at Matthews Arena in Boston, Mass. Trey Hampton led the Panthers with 16 points, and Ousman Krubally recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Georgia State fell to 10-16 overall, 4-10 in the CAA. Northeastern won for the 16th time in its last 17 games, improving to 17-8, 12-2 CAA and maintaining its one-game lead in the conference standings.
The Huskies were led by their outstanding backcourt of Matt Janning, who scored 21 points, and Chaisson Allen, who added 19, including five straight in the pivotal second-half run.
Georgia State trailed 48-45 with four minutes to play when Manny Adako hit a short baseline jumper. Then Allen grabbed a steal and nailed a three-pointer. After another GSU turnover, Allen converted the fastbreak layup for a 55-46 lead with 2:45 to play.
The Panthers cut their deficit to five on baskets by Krubally and Trae Goldston, pulling within 55-50 with 1:56 left. But Allen sank a pair of free throws to push the Huskies lead back to seven with 1:25 left.
"I thought our kids fought hard, and again we put ourselves in position to win, but we had a couple of costly turnovers down the stretch," said GSU head coach Rod Barnes. "I'm proud of them for hanging in there against a really good team, especially after coming off the really tough loss Saturday."
The Panthers played short-handed with Xavier Hansbro injured and James Fields ill. Joe Dukes is playing through a sore back and was held scoreless for the first time in his GSU career, but he still contributed six assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Marques Johnson scored a career-high nine points, and Jihad Ali scored nine also.
Georgia State took a 34-33 lead on Ali's three-pointer with 13 minutes left, but Allen answered with a trey to spark a 14-3 run as the Huskies built a 47-37 lead with eight minutes to go. Then the Panthers scored the next seven points on three free throws and a jumper by Goldston and a dunk by Hampton, pulling with 47-44 with 5:45 on the clock.
Hampton's three at the first half buzzer tied the game at 29-all at the intermission. Hampton scored 13 in the first half, including eight straight in one stretch, but Janning had 15 for the Huskies including eight straight of his own.
Trailing 15-11 midway through the first half, the Panthers scored 10 straight points, eight of them by Hampton to go ahead, 21-15, with eight minutes to play. GSU held the Huskies scoreless for nearly seven minutes before Janning broke the drought. Northeastern moved ahead 29-24 before Georgia State scored the final five of the half to even the game.
Georgia State next heads to Towson Saturday for a 4 p.m. contest before returning home for three straight.
--30-
