ATLANTA - D'Marcus Simonds scored a game-high 27 points, helping Georgia State to a 77-63 victory over Troy on Wednesday at GSU Sports Arena. Simonds shot 9-for-19 from the floor, becoming Georgia State's all-time leader in career made field goals. He also hit five 3-pointers, while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out six assists.
A 17-3 second-half run helped Georgia State (17-8, 8-4 Sun Belt) blow open a one-point game at halftime. The Panthers' defense forced Troy (11-13, 4-8 Sun Belt) to commit 19 turnovers, as Georgia State improved to 10-1 at home this season. Georgia State also improved to 16-0 went leading at halftime.
The Panthers also came up with 10 steals, outscoring the Trojans 17-4 in fast break points.
Senior Devin Mitchell finished with 14 points and five rebounds, while senior Jeff Thomas scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds off the bench. Sophomore Kane Williams returned to the starting line-up and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Troy was led by Javan Johnson who scored 13 points and dished out five assists, while Alex Hicks and Devante Foster each scored 10. The Trojans were without the services of All-Sun Belt performer Jordan Varnado and Charles Norman.
“We have been in a little bit of a tailspin and I thought we worked our way out of it tonight,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “We turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and just were not playing well. However, in the second half, I thought we started to play our brand of basketball again. We jumped out on them with a 17-3 run and continued to play well the rest of the second half.”
Georgia State got off to a slow start in the first half, falling behind by eight before a 14-0 run gave the Panthers a 26-20 lead with 9:44 to play. Georgia State shot 52.0 percent in the half to lead 34-33 at the break.
The Panthers got off to a hot start in the second half, scoring the first eight points and jumping out to an 18-point advantage before Troy came back as Devonte Foster hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the Panther lead to 10 with 3:07 left. However, the Trojans could not cut the lead to single digits as the Panthers pushed it back to 14.
Simonds 3-pointer with 12:40 to play in the game was the 589th career made field goal, surpassing Chavelo Holmes who had held the record since 1986. He finished with five 3-pointers, just one shy of a career high.
Georgia State finished the game 11-of-27 from beyond the arc, shooting 48.1 percent from the floor. On the other end, Troy shot just 40.0 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from 3-point range, while turning it over 19 times.
Notes:
- Georgia State's 17-8 start to the season is tied for the fourth-best 25-game start in program history.
- Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Panthers have won more games (127) than any other NCAA Division I team in the state of Georgia.
- Georgia State has won two of the last three games with Troy and now leads the all-time series 20-17.
Georgia State will remain at home and host South Alabama on Friday night at 7 p.m.
