Overtime thriller with co-champ George Mason ends State's tourney run, 61-56
Richmond, Va. ? Georgia State battled for 40 minutes and then into overtime before falling to regular season co-champ George Mason, 61-56, in the quarterfinal round of the Colonial Athletic Association Championship Saturday night in the Richmond Coliseum.
Both teams had chances to win in regulation with free throws. Mason missed two free throws, one each with 2:44 and 1:42 to leave the door open for Georgia State. Down 47-45, State?s Rashad Chance had a chance to tie with the one-and-one, but missed the front end at 1:19. With 32.9 seconds left, Herman Favors was fouled shooting a trey and got three free throws that could have put State ahead. The 78 percent shooter missed the first one and made the next two to tie the game. Will Thomas had a final off-balance try in the closing seconds of regulation that missed.
State (7-22) was hampered in its bid for a win with four players fouling out and two more with four fouls down the end of regulation. State, who led the first 15 minutes of the game, was just 8-of-16 from the foul line with no attempts in the first half and nine attempts in regulation. Mason (23-6 and No. 23 in RPI rankings) shot 37 total free throws, 21 more attempts than State.
In the overtime, State scored first on two free throws by Chase to take a 49-47 lead. Reserve Sammy Hernandez took advantage of a careful defense to hit a lay-up to tie the game for a seventh time. Mason got a huge three from Hernandez to take the lead at 52-49. That was just Hernandez' 5th three-point basket of the season in 13 attempts. State closed back to 54-53 with 2:12.
At 1:08 on the clock in OT, a State basket on a follow by Brandon Cartwright was disallowed on a shot-clock violation as the Panther bench all thought the ball hit the bottom of the rim on the first attempt and should have been allowed. That basket would have given State a 55-54 lead. George Mason got two layups from Will Thomas as Chase tried not to commit a fifth foul while guarding him. The Panthers closed back to 58-56 on a three-point play by Manier with 16.9 seconds. Tony Skinn made two free throws at 16.5 seconds to open it back to 60-56 and Favors missed two more with 7.2 seconds to end any last chance by State.
Georgia State controlled the game early, jumping out to a 12-2 lead at 14:35 after three-point baskets by Rashad Chase, Malcolm Manier and two inside hooks from center Deven Dickerson. The Panthers' largest lead was 11 points at 15-4 at 13:36 after a trey from Leonard Mendez.
State led 19-12 at the 10-minute mark and at 21-14 with 6:12 on the clock after a Herman Favors?
drive. A wild three-point bank by Sammy Hernandez and four free throws by Tony Skinn tied the game at 21 with 5:23 to go. Mason took a 27-25 lead into halftime.
In the first half, Mason shot 14 free throws and made eight, while State never got to shoot a free throw. Dickerson picked up two fouls, the second on an offensive screen, and played just 10 minutes in the first half while Chase drew three fouls in his 14 minutes. The Panthers shot 50 percent in the first half of 11-of-22 with three-of-six outside the arc.
In the second half, freshman Leonard Mendez scored first for State to tie the game at 27, while the Panthers' other freshman Rashad Chase, picked up his fourth foul in the first two minutes and had to go to the bench. Momentum looked like it might be swinging toward Mason after a layup and a dunk opened a 40-32 lead ith 9:05 to play. State's Lance Perique had become the first to foul out with nine minutes still to go in regulation. The cold Panthers had hit just 3-of-15 second half attempts at this point.
With nine minutes to play, State began its potential game-winning rally by not allowing another Mason field goal on defense the rest of regulation. Meanwhile, the offense got 11 points from its senior guard trio to re-take the lead at 43-41 with 4:15 to play. Manier, Favors and Copeland each hit a trey in that span. By that time, Panther forward Justin Billingslea had become the second Panther to go to the bench with five fouls, leaving only Chase and Dickerson with four fouls each to play underneath.
A jump shot by Favors with 3:26 gave State a 45-43 lead with just 3:26 to go.
For the game, Georgia State had senior guards Favors and Copeland each scored 11 points, with Favors adding five assists. The Panthers who fouled out were Deven Dickerson, Justin Billingslea, Lance Perique and Herman Favors, with Rashad Chase and Boyd Copeland having four fouls midway through regulation.
George Mason was paced by Will Thomas with 19 points, by Jai Lewis with 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Tony Skinn with 10 points.
?Both teams had chances to win this game at the end,? Coach Perry noted. ?I commend Mason for their efforts tonight and all season long. They?re probably the best team in our league and a sure bet for the NCAA tournament. Sure, the foul disparity was glaring, but we didn?t make an issue of it. You control the things you can control and don?t get caught up in that. If we shot better than the 50 percent from the free throw line tonight, we would have won.?
Georgia State had won its first CAA Tournament game last night and went into overtime in the quarterfinals against the co-regular season champ. George Mason will advance to the semifinals on Sunday vs. the Hofstra-VCU winner.
.........................................................................
Soul
I dont know , George Mason did beat Georgia State Panthers.
I agree GM gets smoked
