ATLANTA (Feb. 17) – Georgia State used its solid defense to post a 63-53 victory over Elon in an ESPN BracketBuster game on Saturday afternoon at the Georgia State Sports Arena.

Georgia State, (10-17, 5-11) of the Colonial Athletic Association, posted its second straight win behind a personal-best 22 points from sophomore guard Leonard Mendez, a personal best 12 rebounds from junior forward Justin Billingslea and 14 points from senior forward Lance Perique. The Panthers held a 41-32 rebound advantage with 15 offensive boards in front of its Homecoming and Letterwinners Day crowd of 1,205.

Elon, (6-20, 4-11) of the Southern Conference, was led in scoring by senior forward Chris Chalko and freshman guard Devan Carter. Senior LeVonn Jordan topped with Phoenix with nine rebounds, but scored just five points, ten below his season average.

“It is certainly good to get back-to-back wins late in the year,” said head coach Michael Perry. “You want the players to get used to winning at this time and having confidence in themselves. We hustled on defense today and controlled the boards and blocked some shots.”

Georgia State grew a 25-22 halftime lead to 41-30 at the 10-minute mark and it appeared the host Panthers were in control. But, the visitors went on a 12-5 run to close back to 46-42 with 4:56 to play with Chalko getting five points, including a trey.

The final victory push by Georgia State then grew a 48-44 lead into a 55-44 advantage after a pair of free throws by Perique, a trey from the corner by guard Ron Larris, and a steal that led to a dunk by Perique with 1:20 to play.

This is Georgia State's first ESPN BracketBuster win after an 83-75 loss last year at Charleston. Today, Georgia State blocked a season-best seven shots with three by Deven Dickerson. They held Elon to 38.5 percent shooting in holding its ninth opponent to under 60 points this season. The 53 points allowed were the second lowest of the year.

Mendez has now posted consecutive personal scoring bests with 21 points in the win Wednesday over Northeastern and then his 22 points today that both bettered his 20-point game in January. He was 9-of-14 today with a pair of treys to up his team-best total to 42 in that category.

Georgia State will quickly return to action with a CAA game at last year's Final Four team, George Mason. That Tuesday, Feb. 20 game with the Patriots in Fairfax, Va. will be played at 7 p.m.