February 8 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
Well that was a thoroughly enjoyable victory.
The GSU offense put together one of its finest performances in conference play in a long time and extended the team's winning streak to 10 with a 106-92 victory.
The Panthers (19-6) moved to 10-2 in Sun Belt play and handed Louisiana its first league loss in 11 games. In fact, the Ragin' Cajuns, now 20-4 overall, had won all 10 of their games by double-digits. I imagine this was a fairly stunning defeat.
GSU had six players in double figures and three players score at least 20 points - Jordan Session and D'Marcus Simonds had 22 and Devin Mitchell added 20 - which are two things that never happen to this team. The Panthers pride themselves on a very strong defense (sixth in field goal percentage defense and 20th in scoring defense nationally coming in), but Thursday night was all about an impressive offense.
Session in particular was outstanding, finishing strong around the rim all evening (he was 10-of-14 from the field and I'm not sure any of his 10 field goals came from more than two feet away) to put together his career-high scoring effort. Simonds continued to stake his claim as the Sun Belt's top player, just missing his second triple-double of the season by handing out eight assists to go along with nine rebounds. Mitchell, coming off a career-high 38 points and 10 three-pointers in a win over Little Rock last weekend, drained another five threes.
GSU even shot 87% from the free-throw line (20-of-23), a place where they struggle most years, including this one (66%, 10th in the league coming in). AND, they out-rebounded one of the league's best rebounding teams while holding individual rebounding leader Bryce Washington to five below his season average of 11.
It was a fantastic win and if there was any hope at stealing the top seed from Louisiana, the Panthers had to have it. Now, just a half game separates the teams in the standings with six left to go for GSU and seven for the Ragin' Cajuns.
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