Ryan Harrow led Georgia State to its first conference tournament final since 2002 putting the Panthers past Arkansas State 72-45 Saturday in the Sun Belt tournament semifinals in the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
Head Coach Ron Hunter said he was impressed with his team’s defensive effort after spending all week focused on defense.
“We had to play 80 minutes of great defense,” Hunter said he told his team going into the tournament. “Defensively is where we want to make our statement in this tournament.”
The statement was heard as the Panthers held the league’s third best scoring offense to a season-low 45 points. Arkansas State came into the game averaging 77 points per game.
Ryan Harrow scored 20 points to lead the Panthers to the Sun Belt tournament final.
Harrow scored 20 points shooting 9-of-14 from the floor making two 3-pointers sparking the team after a slow start in which the Red Wolves were able to get out to a five-point lead early.
Harrow got going mid-way through the first half hitting two-consecutive baskets to give the Panthers their first lead of the game. Minutes later, Harrow hit two-consecutive 3-pointers to cap a 14-2 run for the Panthers.
“Once I get going, the rest of the guys see me and they build off of that,” Harrow said on starting the team’s good shooting.
Harrow said he had nightmares the night before Saturday’s game about playing in the SEC tournament worrying about playing. Harrow played in the SEC tournament last season with the Kentucky Wildcats losing in the first round.
With a 32-24 lead at halftime, the Panthers shot 59 percent in the second half to build a 27-point lead while holding the Red Wolves to a season-low 21 points in the second half.
R.J. Hunter scored 16 points for the Panthers and was productive on defense grabbing seven rebounds, one block and one steal.
Georgia State went on a 14-2 run in the first half to take a commanding lead against Arkansas State.
Georgia State started slow on offense going 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the opening four minutes of the game, but the momentum started to shift on a turnover forced by Marcus Crider who passed it to Harrow for the basket and to take the lead for the first time in the game.
Harrow called the Panthers’ slow start “playoff jitters” because the team was concerned about “coming out and worrying about defense and making sure we got stops,” he said.
Senior Rashaad Richardson came into the game and within seconds made a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a five-point lead as a part of their first half run triggering a momentum shift.
“[Richardson’s] a guy playing with one knee right now. He should have had surgery in the middle of the season,” Hunter said. ” He has a big three to get us rolling; that’s the third time in the last month he’s done that for us where he came in and really sparked us.”
Kendrick Washington earned a double-double for the Red Wolves scoring 12 points and picking up 12 rebounds. Washington shot 4-of-9 from the floor and 4-for-4 at the free-throw line, but fouled out late in the game. Melvin Johnson III scored 10 points for the Red Wolves.
The Panthers were able to keep the Red Wolves’ big shooters quiet including Kirk Van Slyke who went 2-of-6 from the floor scoring only six points. Johnson III said fatigue from the night before was not an excuse, but rather shots just not going in.
The Red Wolves were on short rest after their marathon game against UALR Friday that went into quadruple overtime. Arkansas State was able to defeat UALR 116-114, but the three-plus hour game fatigued the Red Wolves.
The Red Wolves Head Coach John Brady gave credit to Georgia State saying this year’s Georgia State team is better than teams the Panthers could face in the NCAA tournament.
“It would be a shame if [Georgia State] happened to get upset in the championship game and not get to the
Georgia State President Mark Becker cheers with Georgia State fans who made the trip to New Orleans.
NCAA tournament,” Brady said, “cause some of these teams they’re talking about aren’t better than Georgia State.
“If you put Georgia State in the SEC, they’re better than five or six of those teams,” Brady said.
Brady said his theory on keeping up with the Panthers is making at least 12 3-pointers, but he said his perimeter shooters “just couldn’t do it.”
Manny Atkins said it was not until mid-way through the game he was able to sense fatigue from the Red Wolves.
“We knew after a while their layups would probably die out on them because of their four overtime game,” Atkins said. “A lot of shots that they would normally make, they [were] falling a little short, and we were able to see that and tried to take advantage of it.”
Saturday’s game was the Panthers first appearance in a Sun Belt tournament in more than 30 years since leaving the conference in 1981.
The Panthers are 6-1 as the No. 1 seed in conference tournaments only falling in 2001 in the Atlantic Sun final.
Hunter said that he thinks he may have to calm his team down going into Sunday’s final, but is not worried about the quick turnaround saying his team “could play at 11 o’clock tonight.”
“We were way too hyped up, and it’s going to be the same tomorrow,” Hunter said.
Georgia State plays in the Sun Belt tournament final against No. 3 Louisiana-Lafayette Sunday at 1 p.m. eastern time on ESPN2.
