Championship Central

NEW ORLEANS – No. 1 Georgia State defeated No. 2 UTA, 73-64, in the title game of the 2019 Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by First Bank and Trust, punching its ticket to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship for the third time in five seasons.
 
The Panthers now await their postseason destination and first-round opponent to be unveiled at 5 p.m. CT on CBS.
 
Malik Benlevi earned Sun Belt Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors with his fourth double-double of the season, 16 points and 11 rebounds. All five Georgia State starters scored in double figures – Damon Wilson with 13, Kane Williams with 12, Jeff Thomas with 11 and D'Marcus Simonds with 10.

Equally impressive, the Panthers went 25-of-34 from the free throw line while holding the Mavericks to just 35.9 percent shooting and 7-of-33 from three-point range.

"I’m so proud of this team and so happy for our program, fans, University and the city of Atlanta," Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter said. "This group played as a team all year long and what they did over the last two days defensively is just remarkable. But like we have said all year, not only do we want to make it to the NCAA Tournament, we want to go win a game in the tournament and we get that chance now."

UTA took an early 7-2 lead just over two minutes into the game and pushed the lead to as many as eight with 15:13 to play as the Panthers were held without a field goal the first five minutes of the game.

From there the Panthers started to heat up and on a Simonds’ lay-up tied the game 17-17 with 12:04 to play.

After Thomas got fouled shooting a 3-pointer, the Panthers took a 24-23 lead and pushed it to 28-23 when Williams knocked down a 3-pointer and was fouled, making the free throw.

The Panthers held the Mavericks without a field goal for the final 10:01 of the first half as UTA shot just 29.0 percent in the first 20 minutes. Georgia State went into the locker room leading 36-31 on perfect free throw shooting, going 11-of-11 from the line.

Georgia State scored the first seven points of the second half and extended UTA’s streak without a field goal to just over 15 minutes before the Mavs finally responded with a 7-0 run to cut the Panther lead to 43-38 with 13:39 to play.

After being held scoreless in the first half, senior Devin Mitchell scored eight straight GSU points as the Panthers built a 56-48 lead with 8:10 to play. Benlevi then scored the next eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers for the Panthers to push the lead to 64-52 with 4:51 remaining.

UTA would use a late 8-0 run to cut Georgia State’s lead to 64-60 with 2:03 to play, but that is as close as the Mavericks could get.

The Mavericks were led by Edric Dennis who scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Brian Warren added 11 points.

2019 SUN BELT MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
All-Tournament Team

Josh Ajayi, South Alabama
Travis Munnings, ULM
Brian Warren, UTA
D’Marcus Simonds, Georgia State
Kane Williams, Georgia State
Most Outstanding Player – Malik Benlevi, Georgia State