ATLANTA (Jan. 20) – CAA foes Georgia State and James Madison battled to the finish before the visiting Dukes escaped with a 59-52 decision Saturday night at the Georgia State Sports Arena.

Georgia State (7-11, 3-5) was using its outside shooting and James Madison (6-12, 3-5) was using its inside rebounding as they traded momentum. Visiting JMU built a lead at 37-31 at 13:00, but State closed back to 37-34 on a three by Ryan McBride. The Dukes then opened a nine-point margin at 43-34 at 10:58, but State came charging right back to make it 47-44 at 6:24 after treys from Ron Larris and McBride. JMU scored more inside to open a 54-47 advantage at 2:41 but State answered with its ninth three-pointer of the game to close to 55-51 with 22 seconds.

Just when it looked like JMU would secure the win with a pair of free throws at 17.9 second to make it 57-51, State followed with an offensive rebound and in the bumping, whistles blew and State was to get free throws for the play and then two technical free throws with a possible chance of four points with the clock stopped at 3.8 to close it to a two-point game. But, Leonard Mendez made just one of the two technical free throws and Lance Perique missed the front end of his one-and-one free throw chances. Terrance Carter made two free throws with 2.5 seconds to seal the second straight win for JMU and end a two-game Georgia State winning streak.

Georgia State made 9-of-21 three-point attempts and shot a solid 47.4 percent for the game, but just 50 percent from the free throw line. But, James Madison answered with a 34-20 rebound advantage that enabled them to get off 56 shots to the Panthers' 38 for the game. JMU also hit 80% from the charity stripe to help its cause. The game was tied five times with six lead changes.

Georgia State got 16 points from forward Lance Perique, plus 14 points and five assists from sophomore guard Leonard Mendez and 10 points from freshman guard Norman Mitchell.

James Madison was led by Terrance Carter with a second-straight 20-point game to go with nine rebounds, while Juwann James did have a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Guard Pierre Curtis chipped in with 11 points and three assists.

“We were right there most of the night, but just couldn't seem to be able to make the play to get us over the hump and into the lead to stay,” Coach Michael Perry said. “In CAA games, you throw the records out and whoever plays hard and makes the plays at the right time escapes with the win that night. We had plenty of opportunities tonight to get the win and our fans were spirited and helped us. Even in the closing seconds, we had a chance to make free throws and close it to a two-point game, but we didn't take advantage of those things tonight. We were doing those kinds of things when we just won our two games on the road.”

Georgia State stays home to play host to CAA rival Hofstra in a re-match on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. here at the Sports Arena.