Georgia State hosted the UTSA Roadrunners Saturday night at the Sports Arena in a Bracketbusters game, and the Panthers pounded the Roadrunners 82-71. Rashaad Richardson led the way for the Panthers scoring 16 points off the bench including going four-of-six from three-point land. Jihad Ali scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. Eric Buckner dominated the paint scoring eight points, snagging eight rebounds and blocking four shots.
The Panthers started off strong in jumping out to a quick 12-5 lead. They maintained their seven-point advantage throughout the first half, and led 45-38 going into the locker room.
The key for the Panthers in the first half was three-point shooting, as they went 6-for-11 from downtown, led by Richardson. The second half was more of a struggle from the outside, but State found its success inside penetrating the Roadrunners two-three zone. The Panthers were up by 17 with less than two minutes to play before they pulled out all their starters and major bench players.
The energy level was high from the start for Georgia State and the Panthers did a great job as a team moving the ball and finding good open shots. They broke the Roadrunners’ zone through their hot shooting, and when they changed to man, they took the ball inside and were able to make their way to the cup with ease. Early on, the Panthers swarmed UTSA in the backcourt, running a full-court trap, forcing six first half turnovers that led to easy transition buckets.
The Panthers struggled some in their half-court defense, allowing UTSA to shoot 47.3 percent from the field. They allowed a lot of open jump shots from the outside, and sometimes were slow on their zone rotation on the perimeter. The struggle defensively was overshadowed by the Panthers’ offensive play, but coach Ron Hunter was clearly not impressed by the defensive performance as he was frequently in the faces of his players during timeouts.
Moving on to their final two games of the season at home against ODU and on the road at William and Mary, the Panthers will hope to carry this offensive performance over, shooting 56.9 percent from the field, but will look to improve defensively.
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