March Madness Begins Saturday as Panthers Face Arkansas State in Sun Belt Championship

ATLANTA-Having won seven-straight games and nine of its last 10, the No. 3-seed Georgia State men's basketball team will open the Hercules Tires Sun Belt Conference Championship on Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET, facing No. 6 seed Arkansas State at the Pensacola Bay Center.

Georgia State (15-10, 9-5 Sun Belt) enters postseason play like it did last year as one of the hottest teams in the country. The seven-game win streak is tied for the 11th-longest in the country and similar to the six-game winning streak the Panthers entered the conference tournament on last season.

The Panthers have won eight of the last nine neutral court conference tournament games, including advancing to the championship game last season before falling to Appalachian State.

Arkansas State (18-10, 8-7 Sun Belt) defeated ULM 81-77 on Thursday night to advance to the quarterfinals. The Red Wolves are led by Sun Belt Player of the Year Norchad Omier but are 0-2 against the Panthers in the conference tournament, including a 71-68 loss in Pensacola last year.

Despite missing non-conference play due to an injury, senior Eliel Nsoseme has been heating up while averaging 8.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. He has three double-doubles in his first 13 starts back and is shooting 54.5 percent from the floor.

Senior Corey Allen leads the Panthers in scoring averaging 13.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game with a team-high 53 3-pointers. He is sixth in Georgia State history with 186 career 3-pointers.

Senior Kane Williams, who currently is in third place on Georgia State's all-time scoring list with 1,536 points, is also the all-time games played leader, wins leader, free throws made, and free throws attempted leader in program history. He is averaging 12.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 81.1 percent from the free throw line having made 67 of his last 77 attempts over the last 10 games.

Senior Justin Roberts is adding 11.8 points per game and shooting 76.6 percent from the free throw line. Along with Williams and Allen, he is one of three Panthers in the starting line-up with at least 1,000 points for his career.

Roberts is now just two points of becoming the 25^th 1,000-point career scorers in GSU program history after Allen became the 24th.

Broadcast Information

Radio: WRAS-FM 88.5; PbP: Dave Cohen
Television: ESPN+; PbP: Matt Stewart, Color: Nate Ross

Game Notes
• Georgia State, the most successful team in the Sun Belt since returning to the league for the 2013-14 season with 107 league wins during that time, missed five games this year due to COVID-19 protocols.
• Georgia State enters the Sun Belt Tournament as a No. 3-seed for the first time. Overall, this is the fifth time the Panthers have been a No. 3 seed in a conference tournament, first since 1999, and have combined for a 2-4 record as the seed.
• GSU is 33-34 all-time in conference tournaments, but 10-5 since returning to the Sun Belt for the 2013-14 season.
• If Georgia State faces Arkansas State on Saturday, it will be the third time and second year in a row the two schools face off in the conference championship. The Panthers have never met ULM in the conference tournament.
• Georgia State is 10-7 all-time in conference championships in the state of Florida, winning a conference championship in 1991 in DeLand which led to the Panthers' first NCAA Tournament appearance.
• GSU has won 7-straight games, which as of Tuesday was tied for the 12th-longest winning streak in the country. It is also tied for the eight-longest winning streak in program history.
• Georgia State has also won 9 of its last 10 games with its lone loss coming by just four points.
• Georgia State has won five-straight road games which is tied for the fifth-longest streak in the country.
• Georgia State has a 23-12 (.657) record in the month of March since the start of the 2013-14 season.
• Super seniors Corey Allen and Kane Williams earned All-Sun Belt Third Team honors on Monday as announced by the league office. It marks the second time each of them has been honored with postseason awards.
• Three of Georgia State's Top 25 scorers all-time are currently on the team. Kane Williams is in third with 1,536 points, Corey Allen is No. 20 with 1,060 points, and Justin Roberts is 25th with 998 career points. Allen became the 24th Panther to score 1,000 career points on Feb. 10, and Roberts should become No. 25 on Saturday.
• Allen has 1,911 career points scored (two years at UD) which is among the top 30 career active scorers in the country. He is also among the top 15 active 3-point shooters.
• Kane Williams is one of just two players in Sun Belt Conference history to combine for 1,500 points, 450 rebounds, 450 assists, and 200 steals. The other is former UT Arlington star Erick Neal.
• With the win on Dec. 6, senior 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 98 wins in four-plus seasons.
• Williams has now moved into the top 20 in Sun Belt Conference history with 480 assists. He is also in the top 5 all-time in free throws made and just four free throw attempts shy of the top 5.
• Williams broke Terrence Brandon's school record of 531 career free throw attempts last year and now has 692. He broke R.J. Hunter's school record of 448 made free throws on Jan. 20 and now has 514 makes.
• Jalen Thomas is 7th on GSU's all-time blocked shots list (109), more than halfway to Zavian Smith's record of 182.
• GSU is 14th in the country is turnovers forced (16.92) and 6th in turnover margin at +4.8. GSU also ranks No. 13 with 9.2 steals per game, which is first in the Sun Belt. Leading GSU is Williams who is ranked No. 97 (1.76 spg) in the NCAA.
• The Panthers rank No. 31 in the nation in fewest turnovers (303) and 18th in fewest fouls (393).
• Jalen Thomas is ranked No. 132 in the country averaging 2.46 offensive rebounds per contest, which is helping GSU to 13.48 offensive rebounds per game which is ranked 8th in the country.
• GSU has won 56-straight games dating back to 1999 when scoring 90 or more points.
• Since 2013-14, GSU has won more games (184) than any other NCAA Division I team in Georgia.

With a win on Saturday, Georgia State will advance to the semifinals on Sunday and face either No. 2-seed Appalachian State or No. 10-seed Georgia Southern on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

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