December 23 at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, TN
espn3.com
Now that is how you close out the non-conference portion of your schedule.
D'Marcus Simonds scored right on his average at 21 points and the GSU defense was excellent in a 71-48 romp on Saturday afternoon.
Simonds already had 14 by the time his team went up 20-7 at the 8:48 mark, and it was 24-7 with 5 1/2 minutes to play. Chattanooga missed 19 of its first 22 shots and finished at 18% (5-for-27) in the opening half as GSU went into the locker room up 33-15. It got worse right away as Simonds had a runner and a foul line pull up, while Malik Benlevi and Jeff Thomas drained threes in GSU's 10-0 run to open the second half & it was a 43-15 game.
The Mocs were 30% shooters overall, while the visitors shot 60%.
Georgia State set the school record for non-conference wins in a season, moving to 9-4 with the lopsided victory.
It's disturbing, and I didn't realize it until the broadcast began, but this ended up being Georgia State's second win IN 26 ALL-TIME MEETINGS IN THE SERIES (and second consecutively, they started 0-24). The teams entered Division 1 around the same time - mid-1970s or so - and Chattanooga has had a bunch of tournament teams, including four each in the 1980s and 1990s, but good heavens that's a horrendous all-time mark against a fellow mid-major program, not to mention local rival.
A kid from southern Tennessee absolutely is considering Georgia State. Good program & not that far - 1 1/2 hours? That's a regional/local rival for recruiting players and it should be that way on the court as well. Chattanooga and Georgia State are actually natural rivals.
Hopefully Saturday's impressive win, and another victory at McKenzie in December, 2010, means the Panthers are prepared to put that putrid past behind them & keep going a winning streak against their neighbors to the north.
They play again in Atlanta December 12, 2018.
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