Panthers Open League Play Thursday with UT Arlington

ATLANTA-After a one-week delay, the Road to March Madness will begin for the Georgia State men's basketball team hosting UT Arlington on Thursday night at 7 p.m., in the GSU Sports Arena.

Georgia State (6-5, 0-0 Sun Belt) had its first two conference games cancelled due to complications with COVID-19, but now will look to continue its dominant run through the league since returning for the 2013-14 season. Since that time, the Panthers have a won a league-best 98 regular season games, earned three regular season titles, a division title, and three runner-up finishes.

Last season Georgia State won the East Division and advanced to the conference tournament championship game before just missing out on a fourth NCAA Tournament bid since 2015.

UT Arlington (6-7, 2-0 Sun Belt) has won three-straight games since a loss to Oklahoma. The Mavericks are looking for their first four-game winning streak since a pair of five-game runs in 2018-19, both of which were ended by Georgia State.

Senior Corey Allen leads the Panthers averaging 15.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per game with a team-high 27 3-pointers shooting 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. The All-Sun Belt Preseason First Team member is also second on the team with assists and third in steals.

Senior Kane Williams, who enters the game just eight points shy of moving into sixth place on GSU's all-time scoring list, became the all-time wins leader in program history earlier this month. With four more made free throws, Williams can also become the career leader in that category in program history. He is averaging 12.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

Senior Justin Roberts is adding 13.2 points per game and shooting 73.3 percent from the free throw line, while shooting 46.0 percent from the floor.

Roberts and Allen are both now within 175 points of becoming the 24^th and 25^th 1,000-point career scorers in GSU program history.

Center Jalen Thomas is adding 6.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, while his 3.10 offensive rebounds per contest is ranked No. 36 in the country.

Broadcast Information

Radio: WRAS-FM 88.5; PbP: Dave Cohen, Color: Rodney Turner
Television: ESPN+; PbP: Dave Cohen, Color: Rodney Turner

Game Notes
• Georgia State and UT Arlington will open Sun Belt play facing each other for the first time in nearly two years.
• GSU has won 98 regular season Sun Belt games since the start of the 2013-14 season, the most in the league.
• The Panthers lead the all-time series with the Mavericks 10-8 and have won five of the last six meetings.
• Georgia State has a 47-16 (.746) record in the month of January since the start of the 2013-14 season.
• GSU has won 8-straight home games dating back to last year, tied for the sixth-longest streak in program history.
• With the win on Dec. 6, senior Kane Williams became the all-time wins leader in GSU program history moving ahead of Ryann Green and Chris Clerkley. He now has been a part of 89 wins in four-plus seasons.
• Head coach Rob Lanier is closing in on 100 wins for his career (99). He also spent four years as the head coach at Siena.
• GSU earned the top spot in the annual Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll as selected by the coaches.
• Seniors Corey Allen (1st Team), Kane Williams (Second Team) and Eliel Nsoseme (Second Team) were all selected to the All-Sun Belt Preseason Teams before the start of the season.
• Kane Williams broke Terrence Brandon's school record of 531 career free throw attempts last year and now has 608. He is second all-time with 444 made free throws, trailing only R.J. Hunter's school record of 448. He is 50-of-64 at the line this year. The 50 made free throws ranks No. 44 in the NCAA, while the 64 attempts are ranked 55th.
• Williams is current in 7th on GSU's all-time scoring list with 1,367 career points. He is currently eight points behind Chavelo Holmes for sixth and is 452 points behind R.J. Hunter's school record of 1,819.
• Corey Allen has 1,740 career points scored which is among the top 30 career active scorers in the country. He has scored 889 of those points at GSU. He just missed a triple-double with 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists against Voorhees.
• Senior Justin Roberts now has 975 career points including 846 in a Panther uniform. He and Allen are looking to become the 24th and 25th 1,000-point scorers in program history.
• The Panthers tied a school-record with 21 steals in the win over Brewton-Parker on opening night. Georgia State also allowed just 10 first half points, a school record and tied for the fewest in the NCAA this year.
• Georgia State is ranked 15th in the country is turnovers forced (18.18) and 17th in turnover margin at +5.3. The Panthers also rank No. 24 with 9.7 steals per game.
• Junior Jalen Thomas is ranked No. 35 in the country averaging 3.10 offensive rebounds per contest.
• Georgia State has won 56-straight games dating back to 1999 when scoring 90 or more points.
• Georgia State is under the leadership of third-year head coach Rob Lanier. His first two-season .648 winning percentage (35-19 record) is the best of any GSU head coach in their first two years leading the program.
• Since returning to the Sun Belt in 2013-14, Georgia State has finished in the top two of the final regular season conference standings six times in eight seasons.

Following the game on Thursday, Georgia State will return to action at South Alabama on Jan. 13 for a game live on ESPN2 and WRAS-FM 88.5. The Panthers game this Saturday with Texas State has been cancelled due to COVID issues within the Bobcat program.

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