Capitol Classic

Men's Basketball

Three Games in Three Days in Capitol Classic Presented by Legacy

GEORGIA STATE in the CAPITOL CLASSIC PRESENTED BY LEGACY
GSU Convocation Center

Friday, Nov. 18
Eastern Kentucky at GEORGIA STATE, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
UNC Asheville vs. Texas A&M-Commerce, 8:30 p.m.
        
Saturday, Nov. 19
Texas A&M-Commerce at GEORGIA STATE, 3 p.m. (ESPN+)
Eastern Kentucky vs. UNC Asheville, 5:30 p.m.
    
Sunday, Nov. 20
Texas A&M-Commerce vs. Eastern Kentucky, 1 p.m.
UNC Asheville at GEORGIA STATE, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+)    

THE TIPOFF: Georgia State hosts the four-team, three-day Capitol Classic Presented by Legacy, Friday through Sunday at the GSU Convocation Center. The Panthers play Eastern Kentucky Friday at 6 p.m., Texas A&M-Commerce Saturday at 3 p.m. and UNC Asheville Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the round-robin. 
    
Georgia State is coming off an 85-83 overtime win over in-state rival Mercer Tuesday as Dwon Odom scored a career-high 21 points. The Panthers trailed 71-63 with six minutes left and rallied from a 77-73 deficit in the final minute of regulation as Odom scored the tying basket with one second left to force overtime.
    
The Panthers nearly completed another significant comeback in their two-point loss to Georgia Tech last week before a crowd of 4,083 at the GSU Convocation Center. Trailing by eight with three minutes left, the Panthers tied the game on Brenden Tucker's 3-point play with 26 seconds left, but Tech managed the winning basket with four seconds to play.

KEEP IT ROLLING: Georgia State has won 12 of its last 14 games, with the only losses coming to No. 1 seed Gonzaga in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament and then a two-point loss to Georgia Tech on Nov. 12. The Panthers won the final seven regular-season contests of 2021-22, swept three games in the Sun Belt Conference tournament and have won two of their first three games of 2022-23.

HOT TAKES ON HUDSON: Sophomore forward Ja'Heim Hudson is off to a hot start, averaging 17.3 points and 10.0 rebounds with a pair of double-double games while shooting 69 percent from the field.

> Forty percent (12 of 30) of his rebounds are offensive, and he also leads the team with five blocked shots.

> In the Panthers' two-point loss to Georgia Tech, Hudson scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to tie his career best. He went 10-for-13 from the field and 4-for-5 from the free throw line. In a five-minute stretch of the second half, he scored 10 of GSU's 12 points to help the Panthers build a seven-point lead.

> The sophomore forward from Hinesville, Ga., added 13 points and nine rebounds in Tuesday's overtime win over Mercer.

ODOM IN THE CLUTCH: Georgia State Dwon Odom scored 16 of his career-high 21 points after halftime in the Panthers' 85-83 overtime win against Mercer.

> The Panthers trailed 77-73 with less than a minute in regulation when Odom hit two free throws to cut the deficit to two with 46 seconds left. He rebounded Mercer's miss with 20 seconds to go to set up his game-tying jumper with one second left to force overtime.

> Odom went 11-for-12 from the free throw line, including 10-for-10 in the second half and overtime.

GSU vs. THE FIELD: Georgia State has played a total of five previous games against the three teams in the field.

> GSU holds a 2-1 lead in the series with Eastern Kentucky, including an 82-65 win in the last meeting on Nov. 23, 2016 in the Cancun Challenge. The Panthers also won 68-59 in 1996-97 at the GSU Sports Arena.

> Georgia State and Texas A&M-Commerce are meeting for the first time.

> GSU and UNC Asheville are playing for the first time in nearly 30 years. The only previous meetings were back to back games in 1996-97 (UNC Asheville 72-73 in Atlanta) and 1997-98 (UNCA 74-64 at Asheville), both won by the Bulldogs.

NEW ERA: First-year head coach Jonas Hayes takes over a Georgia State program that is coming off a berth in the 2022 NCAA Tournament as the Sun Belt Conference champion and is the winningest program in the conference and the state of Georgia over the last decade.
    
The Atlanta native grew up just minutes from the Georgia State campus, playing at Douglass High School and then the University of Georgia. 
    
Hayes spent the last four seasons at Xavier, first as assistant coach and then as interim head coach. He was elevated on March 16, 2022 and led the Musketeers to four straight wins, defeating Florida, Vanderbilt and St. Bonaventure before a 73-72 victory over Texas A&M in the NIT championship game at Madison Square Garden.
 
NEW DIGS: The new home court for Panther basketball is the 7,500-seat GSU Convocation Center, an impressive multi-purpose facility that is a key addition to the Georgia State campus for hosting graduation, freshman convocation, academic programs, performances and other events as well as men's and women's basketball games.
    
The Panthers earned a 76-59 win over Coastal Georgia on Nov. 7 in the first regular-season at the GSU Convocation Center. Sophomore guard Evan Johnson took the first shot and made the first basket--a 3-pointer--in the new arena.
    
Located at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Fulton Street in the Summerhill neighborhood, just a few hundred yards from Center Parc Stadium, the new venue replaces the 3,854-seat GSU Sports Arena that housed the program from 1973 through last season. 
 
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