What You Need to Know:
* Georgia State opened a big first half lead before holding on to earn a 72-68 win over Troy on Thursday evening at the GSU Sports Arena.
* Jeremy Hollowell led all scorers with 22 points after opening the game with four 3-pointers in the first eight minutes.
* At 9-3, the Panthers are tied for the second-best 12-game start in program history and won their 13th-straight at home, the third-longest streak in program history.
ATLANTA-Led by 22 points from Jeremy Hollowell, Georgia State opened a big first half lead and held off a late Troy surge to earn a 72-68 win over the Trojans on Thursday night at the GSU Sports Arena.
Led by a barrage of 3-pointers from Hollowell and senior Kevin Ware, the Panthers built a lead to as many as 26 with just over three minutes to play in the first half, but Troy continued to chip away at the lead over the final 23 minutes of the game.
Hollowell made all four of his 3-point attempts in the first eight minutes of the game, while Ware added three and Georgia State led 36-10 with 3:05 to play in the first half.
Hollowell finished 7-of-12 from the floor, while pulling down seven rebounds and dishing off four assists. Ware added 17 points, six rebounds and six assists, while redshirt-sophomore Isaiah Williams added 14 points and four assists.
Georgia State (9-3, 2-1 Sun Belt) continued its second-best start in program history and improved to 34-7 in conference games since returning to the league. Georgia State is 56-16 in their last 72 games dating back to Dec. 14, 2013 and has won 15-of-19 games dating back to last season.
The Panthers have now won 13-straight at home and improve to 31-1 in the GSU Sports Arena since the start of the 2013-14 season.
Despite 21 points and seven rebounds from Wesley Person, Troy fell to 5-9 overall and 0-3 in Sun Belt play.
“I thought we played an outstanding first half, but didn't show the maturity in the second half to finish off the game,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “You have to give Troy a lot of credit as they played hard all game. They easily could have thrown in the towel but they never did and our guys really didn't know how to respond to that. The good thing is we got the win and we move on.”
Georgia State opened the game on a 14-2 run as both Ware and Hollowell hit a pair of 3-pointers. The Panthers continued to push the pace and led by as many as 26, 36-10, with 3:05 to play.
Hollowell finished the half with 16 points, more than his 14.6 points per game average, on 6-of-7 shooting, while Ware added 13 on 5-of-9 shooting.
The Panthers shot 48.4 percent from the floor and hit 8-of-14 from 3-point range, while holding Troy to just 25.0 percent shooting and 2-of-10 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.
In the second half, Troy started to chip away and cut the lead to 10 on a pair of free throws by Jeremy Hollimon with 4:25 to play and then down to five when he made 2-of-3 free throws with 1:04 remaining. The Trojans would get as close as four with 10 seconds remaining before a pair of Isaiah Williams free throws put the game out of reach.
Isaiah Dennis came off the bench to score eight points and grab four rebounds for the Panthers, while senior T.J. Shipes added five points and eight rebounds.
John Walton III added 16 points and seven rebounds for Troy.
Georgia State held its eighth opponent of the season to under 40 percent shooting as the Trojans finished the game at 38.9 percent.
Georgia State will continue its five-game home-stand facing South Alabama on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets for that game are available by calling 404-413-4020 or by visiting GeorgiaStateSports.com.
Notes: Georgia State was held without a free throw for the first 30:40 of the game, but still finished 15-of-17 from the line . . . Markus Crider and T.J. Shipes won their 74th game in a Georgia State uniform, tied for the fourth-most in program history.
