Newark, Del.?Leonard Mendez scored 19 points, including 15 in the second half, and Deven Dickerson hit two crucial free throws as Georgia State overcame a 10-point second-half deficit and then held on for a 54-53 victory over Delaware Saturday at the Bob Carpenter Center.
The win extended Georgia State's (5-14, 2-7 CAA) string of close games?six of the Panthers' last eight games have been decided by two points or fewer?but snapped a six-game losing streak, which had come by a total of just 21 points.
Delaware, which entered the game in second place in the CAA, fell to 9-10, 6-3 CAA.
“I'm really proud of these kids for keeping their heads up and continuing to fight through the tough losses, and I'm very, very grateful that we were finally able to come through with a win,” said Georgia State head coach Rod Barnes. “Hopefully now we can start to play like this on a consistent basis.”
D.J. Jones' grabbed his own rebound and threw it in to put Georgia State ahead, 49-48, with 3:56 to play, and Dickerson's dunk extended the lead to 51-48 with 2:39 left. After Brian Johnson hit two free throws to pull the Blue Hens within one, Dickerson sank a pair from the charity stripe for a 53-50 State lead with 49 seconds on the clock.
Herb Courtney missed a three on the other end, and Jones got fouled on the rebound, but he missed the front end of a one-on-one. The Blue Hens missed two more shots, and when Mendez finally corralled the defensive rebound, he was fouled and hit one free throw to make it a two-possession game. Johnson hit a meaningless three-pointer at the buzzer for the final 54-53 margin.
“After the last game (State lost 58-57 at Towson on a last-second stickback), we really stressed grabbing those defensive rebounds, and Deven, D.J. and Ousman (Krubally) came up with some big rebounds late in the game,” said Barnes.
Mendez struggled in the first half, hitting just 2-of-9 from the field but State managed to take a 22-20 lead into the locker room. Delaware opened the second half with an 18-6 run to open up a 38-28 lead with 14 minutes to play before Mendez finally got going. He scored eight points, and Trae Goldston added two three-pointers, as State put together a 16-2 spurt to take a 44-40 lead at the 6:50 mark. He added a three-pointer at 5:26 to the put Panthers ahead, 47-43.
Delaware briefly regained the lead on a layup by Jim Ledsome before Jones' bucket put Georgia State ahead for good.
Mendez was the only Panther to score in double figures, but five State players grabbed at least five rebounds in Dickerson, Krubally, Jones, Rashad Chase and Justin Billingslea. Jones also contributed five points, three assists and three steals, and Jihad Ali added seven points.
“I challenged Leonard, and he responded with some big shots today,” said Barnes. “We tried to rest him a little in the first half, but I told him at halftime that there was going to come a point in the game when I would look to him to take over. And he stepped up and did it.”
Mendez agreed with his coach. “Coach told me at halftime to keep shooting, and I really tried to be aggressive the whole second half.”
Marc Egerson led the Blue Hens with 12 points, six rebounds and five assists, but the Panthers limited Delaware standout Herb Courtney to just five points on 2-of-10 shooting.
With the first half of the CAA slate now complete, Georgia State returns home to host Drexel Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Georgia State Sports Arena.
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