MOBILE, Ala.-Georgia State survived a last-second 3-pointer to top South Alabama 69-66 on Thursday night at the Mitchell Center. Junior D'Marcus Simonds led the Panthers with 18 points while three others just missed double-doubles.
Georgia State (14-4, 5-0 Sun Belt) won for the seventh straight time and third-straight on the road in league play. The Panthers have won 18-straight games in the month of January dating back to 2017.
South Alabama (9-9, 2-3 Sun Belt) was led by Josh Ajayi who recorded a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds. However, the Jaguars were held to 40.7 percent shooting and went just 8-of-19 from the free throw line.
The Panthers improved to 5-0 in conference play for the first time since 2013-14 when Georgia State won its first 10 Sun Belt games.
Senior Jeff Thomas added 15 points and nine rebounds, while sophomore Kane Williams finished with eight points and career-high nine rebounds. Senior Devin Mitchell finished with 15 points, knocking down five 3-pointers, while senior Malik Benlevi added seven points and eight rebounds.
“It's hard to win on the road and unfortunately we made it a little harder on ourselves tonight,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “You can't miss 12 free throws, especially not so many in the final minutes, but as I have said before, championship teams find a way to win and we did that tonight. Three road wins so far in conference play is a great thing.”
Keyed on an 8-0 run, South Alabama took an early 11-3 lead just under five minutes into the first half.
However, the Panthers quickly responded and on a Mitchell 3-pointer, Georgia State took a 15-14 lead with 11:15 to play. Mitchell finished the first half with three 3-pointers, the third giving the Panthers a 25-17 lead with just over seven minutes to play in the opening half.
With Benlevi in foul trouble, sophomore Josh Linder came off the bench and scored five points and grabbed two big rebounds in seven minutes of action.
Georgia State went into the locker room with a 35-29 lead despite shooting just 4-of-13 from 3-point range. The Panthers forced seven Jaguar turnovers which led to 10 points over the first 20 minutes.
South Alabama cut Georgia State's lead to just two before a 9-0 run by the Panthers put the visiting team ahead 45-34.
The Jaguars responded again with a 9-0 run to cut Georgia State's lead to 45-43 with 14:20 to play.
Leading by just two, Thomas and Mitchell hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Panthers a 54-46 lead with 9:37 remaining.
On a 3-pointer by Sikes with 3:01 to play, South Alabama cut Georgia State's lead to 61-60. With just over 90 seconds to play, the Jaguars took their only lead of the second half 64-63, but a pair of Williams free throws and a 3-pointer by Thomas with less than 30 seconds to play put GSU back up by four.
Trhae Mitchell finished with eight points and eight rebounds for South Alabama which knocked down 10 3-pointers.
Notes:
- Georgia State's 14-4 start to the season is the second-best 18-game start in program history.
- Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Panthers have won more games (124) than any other NCAA Division I team in the state of Georgia.
- Georgia State's last lost in the month of January came at home against Troy on Jan. 9, 2017.
- Jeff Thomas moved ahead of Shernard Long and Anton Reese and into 22nd on GSU's all-time scoring list with 974 points.
- D'Marcus Simonds moved to within three points of Terrence Brandon for third on GSU's all-time scoring list with 1,476 points.
Georgia State will remain on the road to face Troy on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET live on ESPN+.
