PENSACOLA, Fla. - For the fifth time in seven years, Georgia State will play in the Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship game. The Panthers held off a second half rally to defeat Louisiana, 84-73, in the semifinals Sunday in Pensacola Bay Center. They will meet App State in the championship Monday at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.
Shooting 52.6% from the floor and 60% from the arc in the first half, Georgia State raced out to a 52-35 lead at halftime. Corey Allen drained 4-of-5 3-pointers to score 18 points in the opening half, while Eliel Nsoseme and Jalen
Thomas each had 10 points in the opening period. The largest lead was 19 points, 52-33. GSU forced 10 turnovers and out-rebounded the Ragin' Cajuns' glass 16-2.
"In the first half we came out with great defensive energy and that fueled our offense. We had a nice rhtyhm going. We anticipated in the second half a nice well coached team like Louisiana to make a run. We anticipated their energy and aggressiveness would rear its head in the second half. That happened. We didn't particularly respond to it well in the moment, but we stayed the course and ended up prevailing," said GSU head coach Rob Lanier.
Louisiana slowly worked its way into the game in the first 10 minutes of action and then started a 9-1 run around the 10-minute mark that worked the game even. Dou Gueye hit a 3 with
7:28 to play that evened the score at 69. While Ryan Boyce
answered with a pair of free throws, Gueye made a layup on the other end to tie it once more. He scored seven of his eight total points during that four-minute span.
"I told these guys in a time out, 'Ok, we don't have the lead anymore, can we go play now.' I thought we were playing like we were trying to protect a lead instead of playing a game. We settled in and rebounded well down the stretch," Lanier said.
Georgia State's defense awakened, shutting down Louisiana's offense the rest of the night. The Ragin' Cajuns were 1-of-10 from the floor and 0-for-2 at the line in the closing six minutes of action. Five Panthers found the scoring column in the same span.
The Panthers won the rebounding battle on Lousiana's glass with 32 defensive grabs to the Ragin' Cajun's eight offensive boards. Overall, GSU had 41 total rebounds to Louisiana's 37.
Allen finished the game with 21 points, while Nsoseme posted a double-double 17 points and 12 rebounds. Boyce finished with 13 points, Kane Williams scored 11 and Thomas had 10.
Cedric Russell and Mylik Wilson scored 20 and 19, respectively, to lead Louisiana. Gueye finished as the Ragin' Cajuns' top rebounder with nine.