Game 685 - Georgia Southern at Georgia State

February 2 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
ESPN +

The last time GSU was on the court, D'Marcus Simonds scored just one point in a win over UT-Arlington last Saturday.

Safe to say, Simonds bounced back a week later.

The junior scored a game-high 29 points, his back court mate Kane Williams added 19 and the Panthers closed the game on a 13-3 run to win 81-72.

Georgia Southern led 69-68 with about 4 1/2 minutes to play on a nice move in the lane by Tookie Brown that led to a lay-up. The Eagles would only score three points the rest of the day as Simonds hit 1-of-2 from the free-throw line to tie it and a jumper from Malik Benlevi with 3 1/2 minutes to go gave GSU (16-6, 7-2 Sun Belt Conference) the lead for good. Williams, who added four assists and four steals, was 6-for-6 from the line down the stretch.

Jeff Thomas, whose follow-dunk of a Benlevi miss with 1:13 to go was the highlight of the afternoon & made it 77-70, did a bit of everything, adding 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go along with six rebounds and two assists. Benlevi added 12 on 5-of-8 shooting.

Quan Jackson led Southern (13-9, 5-4) with 20 points, 16 of which came after halftime.

The teams meet again in Statesboro, Georgia on March 9, the final day of the regular season.