On its first offensive possession Saturday, Georgia State followed a missed shot with a steal, then a missed shot with an offensive rebound and a putback. It was 100% effort and yielded the type of results that the team may not have produced three months ago but has come to expect.
That set the tone Saturday for the type of energy the Panthers were prepared to expend, and they never dialed it back. The result was a 73-53 win over Miami (Ohio) in the Sun Belt-MAC Challenge at the GSU Convocation Center.
“It was another step in the right direction,” GSU coach Jonas Hayes said. “If our guys are committed to playing as hard, for as long as they did today, I think we can be a really tough out for people to play.”
The numbers prove him out. Miami came in as the No. 1 3-point shooting team in the MAC at 37.1%, but were held to 19.4%. Georgia State outrebounded the taller RedHawks – whose starting lineup included a 7-footer – and produced 30 points in the paint. And GSU held Miami’s reserves – which leads the MAC and ranks 25th in the nation in bench scoring at 29.13 points – to only 16.