Photo Credit: Joe Imel
Release from Georgia State Athletics:
Coming off a Sun Belt championship season, Georgia State will open a highly-anticipated 2014-15 campaign on Friday night hosting Tennessee Temple in the GSU Sports Arena at 7 p.m. It will mark the Panthers only home game during the month of November.
Georgia State welcomes back three starters from last year along with 10 newcomers who earned a pair of exhibition game wins by an average of 26.5 points. The Panthers are overwhelming favorites to repeat as Sun Belt champions, however head coach Ron Hunter knows that there are a lot of games between now and March.
“Friday just represents game one,” Hunter said. “We cannot fast forward to March 15 (the day of the Sun Belt championship game) nor can we deviate from the process. If we do not take it one game at a time and work to continue to get better every day, we will not have a chance to reach our ultimate goal.
“Tennessee Temple is a very good program that already has a pair of wins under its belt this season. They are going to come into the Sports Arena and give us their best shot like we know that everyone will this season.”
Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year R.J. Hunter enters his junior year already in the top 15 in several career statistical categories in Georgia State history. He is 13th in points (1,131), 11th in free throws made (246), third in free throw percentage (83.4), fourth in 3-pointers (173), fourth in 3-point attempts (453), seventh in 3-point percentage (38.2) and ninth in steals (116). He will also move into the top 10s of field goals made, field goals attempted and games started early in the season.
Hunter recorded a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds in the Georgia State’s exhibition win over Shorter on Monday night.
Ryan Harrow joined Hunter as an All-Sun Belt Preseason first-team member. Following a junior season in which he scored 604 points, fourth most in program history, he could become just the fifth Panther to reach the 1,000-point career plateau in two seasons.
Harrow finished the preseason averaging 24.0 points and shooting 66.7 percent from the floor, dishing out 12 assists.
Georgia State was unanimously selected to win the Sun Belt this season by the conference’s head coaches after making a Postseason NIT appearance last year.
Tennessee Temple, located in Chattanooga, Tenn., enters the contest 2-1 on the season.
The Sports Inquirer 
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