Games 714-716: Saturday tripleheader

716 - San Diego State at UNLV
February 23 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV
ESPNU

715 - Loyola (Maryland) at Boston
February 23 at Case Gym in Boston, MA
Patriot League Network

714 - Georgia State at Coastal Carolina
February 23 at HTC Center in Conway, SC
ESPN +

Other games watched:

Eastern Illinois women at Tennessee State
SIU Edwardsville at Belmont

Game 562 - (10) Georgia State women vs. (7) Coastal Carolina

Sun Belt first round
March 6 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, LA
espn3.com

An extremely frustrating season came to an end for GSU as Coastal Carolina used a dominant second quarter to get some distance and cruised to a 74-55 win.

The seventh-seeded Chanticleers trailed by a point after one, but used a 12-0 run to out-score GSU 22-6 in the second (Kaylin West had 10 points and Jas Adams had eight in the period) and it was a double-digit lead for the rest of the night.

Adams, the top scorer in the Sun Belt, finished with 16 points, while West had 15 off the bench.

The Panthers had high hopes coming into the season, but two games in lost to injury Jada Lewis, last year's Sun Belt freshman of the year, then dropped five league games by seven points or less.

GSU has no seniors, so every major contributor, including Lewis, Kierra Henry (game-high 18 points) and Madison Newby (team's assist leader, averaged 11 points in 29 games) returns next season.

Game 259 - Coastal Carolina at Georgia State

January 21 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
espn3.com

Things are starting to come together for the Panthers, who won their third straight, 76-56 Saturday afternoon and at 4-2 moved into a second-place tie in the Sun Belt.

During the Ron Hunter era, which began in 2011, when GSU is going well it's usually because of a strong defense built on traps and pressure on the perimeter & good three-point shooting. Saturday was a perfect example of that as Coastal Carolina was held to 30 percent shooting, including just 19% (7-of-36) in a dominant opening half, and the Panthers knocked down a season-high 15 threes.

Jeff Thomas had three of those as he came off the bench and put together a 13-9-6 line, and D'Marcus Simonds drained four. We're just 18 games into his freshman season, but I don't think it's a stretch to say Simonds is one of the best freshmen recruits in GSU history. I'm excited for the next 3 1/2 years of the career of the Gainesville, GA product.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Hollowell, the only player on the roster in the top-30 in Sun Belt scoring, contributed another nice game - 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Hollowell's senior season gets better by the game.

I really think the Panthers are a bit of a forgotten team in the conference despite the fact they won consecutive league titles in 2014 and 2015 and reached the round of 32 of the NCAAs just two years ago. A down 2016 has allowed the Atlanta school to be a bit of a sleeper in the league. But with Simonds and fellow lead guard Isaiah Williams back from injury, Hollowell starting to consistently play like an all-league member and nightly contributions from guys like Thomas and Malik Benlevi (eight points, four assists and no turnovers Saturday), GSU is absolutely one of the Sun Belt teams to beat.