Richmond, Va.--Playing a third straight game down to the final shot, Georgia State fell at VCU, 49-47, Thursday at the Siegel Centger, but not before Trae Goldston's three-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.

Leonard Mendez led the Panthers (4-10, 1-3 CAA) with 18 points and Goldston scored all 11 of his points in the second half as Georgia State had a chance to win despite trailing by as many as 13 points in the second half. State knocked off George Mason last week on Mendez's buzzer-beating shot and then fell by two points at Northeastern Saturday after missing another potential game-winner.

“Our kids came into a tough place to play and fought hard,” said Georgia State head coach Rod Barnes. “We've been close twice in a row, we just didn't get it done in the end. I told our kids we've got to continue to put ourselves in position to win and this ball is going fall one of these times on the road.”

The Panthers trailed 47-39 with less than three minutes to play and still trailed by five with under 30 seconds left when State forced a turnover. Ousman Krubally was fouled and made his first free throw. When he missed the second, Rashad Chase rebounded for the Panthers and D.J. Jones tipped in Chase's miss to bring State within 49-47 with 13 seconds on the clock.

State fouled Jamal Shuler, who missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10 seconds to play, and Chase grabbed his 13th rebound of the game to give the Panthers their final shot. With Mendez being double-teamed, Jones dribbled up court and got the ball to Goldston at the top of the key, but his shot was just off the mark.

“They jammed Leonard Mendez with two guys, so Trae Goldston was the second option, and he got a pretty good look,” said Barnes. “We wanted to get the ball to Mendez, but he was denied, so D.J. did the right thing going to Trae.”

Shuler led VCU (10-4, 3-1 CAA) with 13 points but Rams standout Eric Maynor, the preseason player of the year in the conference who was averaging nearly 20 points a game, managed just nine.

Both teams shot below 35 percent from the field, and Georgia State endured a long scoring drought in each half, but the Panthers patient strategy of running down the shot clock on most possessions allowed them to stay close to the more athletic Rams.

“VCU is a great team, and they made some baskets down the stretch when they really needed them,” said Barnes. “I thought we fought hard and played the game the way we needed to, but in the end they had a little too much talent for us.”

Georgia State shot just 33 percent from the field but held VCU to 35 percent, committed a season-low eight turnovers and outrebounded the Rams, 41-37, including 23-14 in the second half. State held VCU to its lowest scoring output since December of 2005.

After Mendez hit a three-pointer to put State up 7-0 three minutes into the game, the Panthers went nearly nine minutes without a point until Mendez ended the drought with another bucket. But the Rams offense was almost as dormant during that stretch as the Panthers led, 9-5, with eight minutes to play in the half. From there, VCU went on a 12-2 run to take a lead they would not relinquish.

The Rams led 24-16 at the intermission, and Georgia State started the second half with another scoring drought. The Panthers went almost seven minutes into the second half without scoring but VCU wasn't much better and when Mendez finally hit a three-pointer at the 13:04 mark, State was only down by 10 points, 29-19.

The Panthers return home to host William & Mary Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Sports Arena.