Georgia State men’s basketball returns to action against Xavier on Saturday

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

Like it did more than a decade ago, Georgia State has made itself at home in the NCAA tournament as the 14^th-seeded Panthers earned the right to play a second game after knocking off third-seeded Baylor 57-56 on Thursday. The win pushed GSU into a Saturday matchup with Xavier, the No. 6 seed in the West Region, at Veterans Memorial Arena. Tipoff is set for 6:10 p.m. ET and the game will be played on TNT.

Georgia State earned its 25^th win of the season on Thursday, tying last year’s squad for the second-most wins in a season in program history. The record for single-season victories is 29 in 2000-01, the same season Georgia State reached a weekend matchup in NCAA play after toppling Wisconsin in the first round.

The Panthers have won six consecutive games and 10 of their past 11 overall while picking up regular-season and tournament titles in the Sun Belt Conference. In four of the past five games, GSU either held on in the final minute or overcame a deficit in the last five minutes to earn the win, reversing a problem of finishing games from earlier in the year.

R.J. Hunter provided the dramatics on Thursday, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the final 2:53 to help GSU end the game on a 13-0 run. His 30-foot, dead-on bomb with 2.7 seconds remaining gave the Panthers the one-point victory, setting a trend in many ways. The victory by just a single point was the first of five on the day around the country, the most ever on a single day in NCAA tournament play. It was also a sign of things to come in Jacksonville, as two other games at the site – North Carolina over Harvard by two points and Arkansas over Wofford by three points – ended up in thrillers.

The only game Thursday that didn’t require an extra few deep breaths was the Xavier contest as the Musketeers raced by Ole Miss for a 19-point win. Xavier, which owns a 22-13 record, will be the sixth team the Panthers have played from the Big East (current or former members) with GSU holding just a 5-18 record.

Georgia State’s recent success has come as a result of unselfish play across the board, a statement which may be looked at strangely considering it has two players averaging nearly 20 points per game. Hunter, the two-time reigning Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, is contributing 19.6 points per game, and Ryan Harrow, who has missed almost all of the past four games with a hamstring injury, adds 18.7. Both are ranked among the top 50 scorers nationally although no team has had two players each score at least 20 points per game for a season since 2001-02.

But in the past two weeks, it has been the likes of Kevin Ware, Ryann Green, Markus Crider, Curtis Washington and Isaiah Dennis stepping up to fill the void when defenses lock down on Hunter.  Speaking of defense, Georgia State’s has been pretty good, ranking among the national leaders in field-goal percentage defense, steals and turnover margin. Georgia State is holding opponents to just 38.3 percent shooting for the season, No. 9 in the NCAA. The Panthers have held 11 opponents under 30 percent shooting this season, second-most only to undefeated Kentucky.

Since Feb. 1, the Panthers have allowed only two teams to top 65 points in a game, including winning an 83-79 sprint to the finish line in the Sun Belt semifinals a week ago. The versatility to push tempo – GSU has scored at least 75 points in 14 games while winning its last five games when it failed to score more than 60 points – has served the Panthers well.

Hunter has scored 1,799 career points in just 98 games, averaging 18.4 points per game. He is the NCAA career active leader in points scored, 3-pointers (250) and 3-point attempts (707) among all juniors. Hunter is also 10th among all active players in career scoring average.