Guard
After last season’s gutwrenching defeat in the Sun Belt championship game to Louisiana-Lafayette by a final score of 82-81, the Georgia State men’s basketball embarked on a 2014-15 season with the theme being “Unfinished Business.”
That business was taken care of on March 15 at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans when the Panthers defeated the Georgia Southern Eagles by a final of 38-36 in this season’s conference final. The victory won the Sun Belt for Georgia State and also clinched their first NCAA tournament berth since 2001.
“I’m really proud of my kids,” Head Coach Ron Hunter said after the championship game. “First thing I told them before the game is nothing has come easy for us. Nothing. It has been a struggle all year and it’s supposed to be a struggle.”
The deciding scores came in the waning moments of the moments of the second half. With 21 seconds remaining, junior guard R.J. Hunter, who picked up his fourth foul midway through the second half, made two free throws from the line after being fouled by senior Georgia Southern guard Curtis Diamond.
Hunter for the season shot 87 percent from the free throw line.
“I felt I owed my team those free throws,” R.J. Hunter said. “I got a lot of encouragement from my teammates during the timeout [prior to the free throws].”
It was also a big game for Kevin Ware, who finished with 18 points as he made eight of his 17 shots from the field and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Ware and the Panthers were playing on ESPN2 before a nationally televised audience, an audience that still remembers his gruesome leg injury he sustained during the 2013 NCAA tournament while with Louisville.
“[Ware] has been through a lot,” Ron Hunter said. “Publicly breaking his leg [two years ago]. It was a struggle for him. I am so happy for him. He’s an unbelievable kid and he deserved that. He deserved that moment.”
Ware said after the game that he may feel somewhat nervous being back on the national stage, but that those pregame jitters will disappear quickly after taking the court in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m pretty sure butterflies will be fluttering,” Ware said. “But I think I’ll get over it in the first two minutes or at the first media timeout.”
Georgia Southern attempted two game-winning threes after Hunter made his foul shots, but neither went through the hoop. Jubilation ensued from everyone at the Lakefront Arena in Panthers blue and white.
“Shots weren’t falling, so it was time for me to do different things,” R.J. Hunter said. “It was back and forth and we literally got the stop we needed at the end of the game.”
Markus Crider, along with Hunter, also were named to the all-tournament team.
After the game, the team celebrated with Georgia State fans in attendance at the Lakefront Arena. Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson presented the Panthers with the Sun Belt title trophy, then the triumphant players and coaches participated in the ceremonial “cutting down of the nets.”
The party was so much that Ron Hunter actually tore his achilles. He said it was actually embarrassing that it happened since he felt it took away from what his players accomplished.
There was also reflection on how big it is for not only Georgia State athletics, but Georgia State. Ron Hunter said that the chance to represent Atlanta and the state of Georgia in the NCAA tournament was huge.
“I said to Kevin [Ware] that we just did something that we won’t even know how big it is,” R.J. Hunter said. “The football team is struggling and we haven’t had a good basketball team since the ‘Lefty’ [Driesell] days. Now we’re about to see who we’ll be playing in the NCAA tournament.”
The long regular season grind
The Panthers’ conference title was the culmination of a season that began with high expectations after last year’s campaign that saw Georgia State finish with a 25-9 record along with going 17-1 in the Sun Belt only to lose in the title game.
This year, the Panthers remained at the top of the conference standings for much of the season. Coming down the stretch, Georgia State was locked in a three-way battle with conference newcomer Georgia Southern and Louisiana-Monroe for the regular season conference crown.
The Panthers defeated the Warhawks 58-50 behind 31 points from Ryan Harrow. The team then defeated the Eagles by a final of 72-55 on Senior Day at the Sports Arena on March 7, clinching the top spot in the tournament.
Georgia State’s victory that day was marred by a hamstring injury to Harrow, sidelining the conference’s leading scorer for much of the tournament as he only saw limited playing time in New Orleans.
Saturday, March 14: 83-79 vs. UL-Lafayette
Winning the regular season conference title had clinched the top seed for the Panthers, meaning they would not take the court until Saturday in the semifinals. Georgia State learned who its opponent would be when the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns beat the Texas State Bobcats by a final of 53-43.
The Cajuns were the tournament’s fourth seed, but was coming into the game vs. Georgia State with a seven-game winning streak.
The stage set on Saturday, March 14 as the Panthers squared off against the team that dashed its NCAA Tournament hopes from last season. The Cajuns had an 8-6 lead over Georgia State before the Panthers turned up the defensive pressure and converted it into offense as the lead grew to 11 at 25-14.
The lead was 44-27 at the half and grew to as much as 24 in the second half. Louisiana-Lafayette would not go away as they would trim the deficit down to as little as single-digits. Georgia State managed to hold off UL-Lafayette by a tally of 83-79, advancing the Panthers into the title game for the second straight season.
Ron Hunter credited how aggressive his team was offensively and defensively in the first half but mentioned how it was a different case in the second half.
“Our kids in the first half were very aggressive,” he said. “But, somehow we lost it in the last four or five minutes. I’m really proud of our guys. We beat a good basketball team. Defensively, we were really good up until the last few minutes.”
Junior guard R.J. Hunter admitted that in the waning moments of the second half, flashbacks of last year’s championship game began to set in as the Cajuns made their run.
“It was, kind of, déjà vu because it was the exact same way they got back in the game last year,” he said.
Hunter finished that game with 32 points. The Panthers also got 15 points from Crider and 10 from Isaiah Dennis.
Sunday, March 15: 38-36 win vs. Georgia Southern
Half of the championship game was set with the Panthers win. Georgia State’s opponent was Georgia Southern as they earned a 44-43 victory over UL-Monroe in the second semifinal game. The Eagles had bested the Warhawks despite shooting only 28 percent from the field.
The Panthers and Eagles split the two previous matchups. Georgia Southern defeated Georgia State 58-54 in Statesboro, Georgia, but the Panthers got the better of the Eagles at the Sports Arena in the 72-55 that clinched the regular season championship.
The in-state rivalry renewed on Sunday at New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena with a Sun Belt title and NCAA tournament berth on the line.
Unlike the high-powered offensive battle the Panthers were in vs. the Cajuns, Georgia State’s title tilt vs. Georgia Southern turned out to be a defensive struggle.
The Panthers led by as many as seven (13-6) with seven minutes left in the first half before redshirt Eagles senior forward Eric Ferguson and redshirt senior guard Jelani Hewitt made three-pointers, closing the gap to 13-12. Georgia State’s lead was 19-16 at the half
The Panthers managed to hold off the Eagles for much of the second half. Georgia State led 29-23 before a 7-0 Georgia Southern run. Redshirt senior forward Trent Wiedeman made two free throws, then freshman guard Mike Hughes made his first three-pointer of the game. Sophomore forward Kyle Doyle put in a layup, completing the run and giving the Eagles a 30-29 lead.
That lead would only last briefly as Ware made a three, swinging the contest back in the Panthers’ favor at 32-30.
The two teams tied up at 32, 34, and 36 apiece prior to Hunter’s two free throws. A few seconds later, Georgia State clinched its third NCAA title berth.
“I’ll take ugly wins all day,” Ron Hunter said. “All our games with Georgia Southern are that way because you’ve got two great defensive teams.”
Who would the Panthers play?
After the victory, Georgia State players, coaches, and alumni along with Sun Belt personnel watched the Selection Show on CBS from the VIP Hospitality Room at the Lakefront Arena. The Panthers found out they will be a 14-seed and will play the three-seeded Baylor Bears in Jacksonville, Florida the following Thursday.
Georgia State defeated the Bears in the second round of the NCAA tournament by a final of 57-56 on Mar. 19. The Panthers closed the game on a 13-0 run, capped off by R.J. Hunter’s long game-winning three-pointer that made headlines across the country.
In a moment that went viral on the internet, Ron Hunter fell off the chair that he was coaching on during the game as he witnessed his son’s big highlight on the national stage.
The Panthers would have Harrow back for its third-round game vs. the Xavier Musketeers, who earned the right to face Georgia State after a 76-57 win over Ole Miss that same Thursday. On Saturday, the Panthers’ season came to an end with a 75-67 loss to Xavier. R.J. Hunter finished the game with 20 points.
“I told [the players] not to be sad,” Ron Hunter said after the loss to Xavier.
