Games 676-677: Two on Saturday

677 - Bowling Green at Miami (Ohio)
January 26 at Millett Hall in Oxford, OH
The MAC on ESPN

676 - UT Arlington at Georgia State
January 26 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
ESPN +

Jeff Thomas!

My favorite Panther since current Boston Celtics guard R.J. Hunter delivered in a big way Saturday, scoring 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting in a 77-71 win.

Thomas reached the 1,000-point plateau with the first basket of the game (he's the 21st in school history to reach that mark), then was the only consistent shooter for GSU, which was out-rebounded 48-30 (UTA grabbed an absurd 21 offensive rebounds), and saw its best player, D'Marcus Simonds, score one point, miss all nine of his field goal attempts and basically sit out the entire second half.

It's a win, though, and it snapped a two-game losing streak and helped GSU (15-6) improve to 6-2 in Sun Belt play.

Great days for sophomore point guard Kane Williams, who came off the bench to score 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and Jordan Tyson, a senior, who got a rare start and had perhaps his best game in two years with the Panthers (career-high 11 points, five rebounds, three blocks, two steals).

Games 168-169: MAC doubleheader

MAC quarterfinals

169 - (12) Bowling Green vs. (4) Central Michigan
168 - (8) Eastern Michigan vs. (1) Akron
March 10 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH
espn3.com

One of my favorite parts of this pair of MAC games - won by Akron and Bowling Green by a combined five points - was the sponsor: visitmyrtlebeach.com.