ATLANTA?Eric Maynor scored 11 straight points late in the game, including the tying basket with 17 seconds left in regulation, to lift VCU to a 65-60 overtime victory over Georgia State Wednesday at the Georgia State Sports Arena.
Georgia State (6-16, 3-9 CAA), which suffered its fifth CAA loss by five points or fewer, took a 58-52 lead on Trae Goldston's three-pointer with 1:40 left. Maynor, who finished with 16 points, drove for a layup, and after a State turnover, he converted two free throws to pull the Rams (17-5, 10-2 CAA) within two points with a minute to play.
After the Panthers missed on the other end, Maynor made another driving layup to tie the game at 58-all with 17 seconds left. State failed to get off a shot at the end of regulation as Michael Moynihan turned it over with five seconds left.
Georgia State's Justin Billingslea scored first in the overtime, but Maynor scored two straight baskets, and then the Rams sealed it at the free throw line.
“I thought our kids played hard for the most part, and we did a good job of competing play after play. But when you play a team like that you can't turn the basketball over late in the game and we did,” said Georgia State head coach Rod Barnes, whose squad has lost to games to CAA leader VCU by a total of five points after a 49-47 defeat last month on the Rams' homecourt
“I won't take anything away from VCU. They did what you're supposed to do on the road: they hung in there, and when we made mistakes, they had guys who took advantage of it.”
Goldston led the Panthers with 16 points, including 4-for-5 from three-point range. Leonard Mendez scored 13 points and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds, and Billingslea added 10 points and six rebounds. State held VCU to 35 percent shooting from the field, but the Panthers were outrebounded, 38-33, including 15 offensive rebounds by the Rams, and committed 17 turnovers.
Maynor, the preseason CAA Player of the Year, led the Rams with 16 points, and Larry Sanders contributed 10 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.
“He made some plays down that stretch that obviously were huge and put us in position to win,” said VCU head coach Anthony Grant of Maynor.
State led 22-21 after a first half in which it hit just 8-for-21 (38 percent) from the field, but VCU shot just 25 percent (7-for-28).
VCU led briefly midway through the second half before Mendez hit a three-pointer that tied the game at 42-all with 9:33 to play. That started a 10-0 run, capped by a Deven Dickerson basket, as the Panthers built a 49-42 advantage with seven minutes left. Moynihan hit a trey that again gave State a seven-point lead at the 4:34 mark.
Georgia State plays at Hofstra Saturday in a 4 p.m. game that will televised on CSS.
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