NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Isaiah Williams scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half, Devin Mitchell hit a late 3-pointer and Georgia State held off Georgia Southern 73-67 on Saturday in a Sun Belt Tournament semifinal.
The second-seeded Panthers (23-10) will play No. 4 seed UT-Arlington (21-12) in Sunday's championship.
Quan Jackson's 3-point play pulled Georgia Southern to 66-63 with 53 seconds left. Following a Georgia State timeout and with 20 seconds left on the shot clock, Mitchell took the inbound pass and hit a deep 3-pointer with 21.4 seconds to play. Williams made four free throws to seal it.
Jordan Session didn't miss a shot and scored 16 points with nine rebounds for Georgia State. Jeff Thomas added 13 points and Mitchell finished with six.
Tookie Brown had 25 points and Ike Smith 16 to lead No. 3 seed Georgia Southern (21-12), which trailed by 17 points early in the second half.
Georgia State Notes
• The Eagles were able to hold D’Marcus Simmons to a season-low 6 points.
• The Eagles drew 27 personal fouls, the most the Panthers had committed against any Sun Belt opponent.
• D’Marcus Simmons turned the ball over 17 times in three games against the Panthers, the most against any Sun Belt opponent this season.
• The Eagles won the turnover battle 10 to 18, scoring 18 points off of turnovers to the Panthers’ three.
• The Eagles finished the season with 12 contests in which they’ve posted 10 turnovers or less.
Georgia Southern Notes
• Despite finishing with a season-low six points, D’Marcus Simmons was able to pass RJ Hunter for the most single-season points (691) in program history.
• Devin Mitchell’s two three pointers brought his season total to 94 which is tied for the second most in program history.
• D’Marcus Simmons’ one assist brought his season total to 148 which is tied for the fourth most in program history.
• State's victory marked only their 20th win against the Eagles who still lead the rivalry series 36-20.
• Jordan Session was perfect from the field (7-7) for the first time in his career (minimum five attempts).
• Georgia State makes its first tournament championship game since making it back-to-back title games in 2014 and 2015. The Panthers lost the 2014 title game to Louisiana in overtime and won their first Sun Belt Tournament title in 2015.
• This will be the third time in four years (2015, 2016, 2018) that the top two seeds will meet in the Sun Belt Tournament championship game.
Georgia State Quotes
Head Coach Ron Hunter
Opening Statement:
“Devin Mitchell. Devin Mitchell. Devin Mitchell. We got into a timeout, they put twenty on the clock and so we were going to space it out. I made them say it three times back to me. ‘What are we going to do? Spread it out coach.’ I went through the whole group, ‘Spread it out, spread it out. How much time? 20, 20, 20.’ Devin gets in and he saw it was just one second on the clock. So I am going to call my mom because my mom wanted me to get into banking, so I am going to call her and say, ‘Mom you were right,’ because this stuff [is] stressful man. But it was a good win. It was an in-state game, you’re going to get this with in-state games. We knew that they would come back. They play smalls to try to bother us a little bit. They had guards all over the floor, but our kids are resilient you know. They wanted to be in this game tomorrow and not just to be in the game. We wanted an opportunity to get back to the championship game. We know that we are playing a good team. I am really happy for my guys especially since this is probably one of the worst game that D’Marcus has played since he has been at Georgia State and for us to win this game just shows you how good this team is. We won a game without the player of the year really playing for the most part. He got into foul trouble and could never really get himself going, and you know the happiest guy in the locker room is D’Marcus. That is what I love about this team. ”
On Foul Trouble:
“Even when we got the big lead, they were driving and putting pressure on us and they were getting the calls on the other end. We talked to our guys again about ‘Don’t foul, Don’t foul,’ and we feared that the game was going to be won on the free throw line. I thought that we did a great job on the free throw line. We just couldn’t get D’Marcus going with that. Georgia Southern is kind of tough because they can space you out. They don’t really have any bigs so you’re always chasing them, but we were able to get it done.”
On tomorrow’s matchup:
“UTA is a really good team. They are extremely, extremely talented. I think both teams will be a little tired, but you’ve got something to play for. Our guys won’t sleep and they will be ready. I wish we were playing the game right now. We know we are playing a good team, but unfortunately for them, we are good too. You had two great semifinal matchups – the four best teams in the league played today. Great basketball in the Sun Belt today. I imagine tomorrow you’ll see a great game, because we have really, really good teams, really, really good coaches and I don’t think we get the exposure in this league. If you watch basketball and you watched these game today, you’d see how good the Sun Belt really is. Unfortunately, we just don’t get the attention that I think we deserve.”
Georgia Southern Quotes
Head Coach Mark Byington
Opening Statement:
“It was a typical, dramatic Georgia Southern-Georgia State game. We got off to a start that just made it too much to come back from. I don’t know if it was the quick turnaround, but we weren’t ourselves the first 14 minutes of the game. Just atypical of what we have been through 30 games this year. The second half, we started playing like ourselves – we were aggressive and started making plays. The finality of it hurts. I hurt for our senior group who has done a tremendous job of building Georgia Southern basketball. I really wanted them to experience getting to a championship game and winning a championship game, and this group played as one as freshmen, and I would have loved for them to have the chance to go back. I was really proud of our guys effort. We fought and fought and could not get a break. We just needed a couple of things to go our way and they just didn’t. We kept fighting, and I am proud of our guys and I love this team. I enjoy coaching them every single day and I am really going to miss this group.”
What adjustments did you make at halftime?
“We changed our defensive scheme. We pressed more and we tried to switch some screens. We tried to really keep guys in front of us. Jeff Thomas put us on our heels early when he made a couple of threes. They were semi-contested shots but I wish we had played a little better defense on those. We did regroup and were able to play defense in the second half with the intensity, focus and effort that I thought we could, and we were able to turn them over and get back in the game.”
On the sequence at the end of the game when Georgia State knocked down the unexpected three.
“It was an unbelievable stretch. We had tons of momentum, and there were like 20 second left on the clock, where we didn’t even need a three. They didn’t know the shot clock was going down, the ball goes off our foot, and we were going to foul the guy when he caught it. He just kind of drifted into the corner and faded away. If the kicked ball isn’t there, if he misses the three – there are so many what ifs in the game that it’s going to be hard for us to get over it for a while. Those are two big ones over the last minute, but there were probably 20 more in the game.”