Lake Charles, La.--Despite 19 points from freshman Harold Doby in his collegiate debut, Georgia State opened the season with a 68-62 loss at McNeese State in Burton Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday night.
Doby, a native of Augusta, Ga., came off the bench to play 30 minutes, shooting 7-of-10 from the field and knocking down 5-of-7 from the line. He finished the game with five rebounds and a pair of steals.
"Harold Doby is a very good freshman," commented head coach Rod Barnes. "He played really well tonight and made good adjustments when he needed to, really helping us out tonight.
After scoring 23 points in the first half for the Cowboys, the Panthers held Deigo Kapelan to just two second half points, but 18 total Panther turnovers proved to be the difference.
"I thought our guys came out and played hard. I thought they gave great effort, but we made too many mistakes and sent them to the free throw way too many times. We just didn't make the adjustments the way we wanted to, but that is something that we can fix."
McNeese State scored 19 points off of those turnovers, seven of which came in the second half.
Trailing by as many as nine in the first half and by six early in the second half, freshman Javonte Maynor hit back-to-back three-pointers with 15:34 remaining to tie the score at 40. Maynor, who made the start in his debut, was limited in the first half after picking up two fouls 11 seconds apart, each before the first media timeout.
Maynor finished the game playing 17 minutes, scoring six points and pulling down three rebounds.
Junior Eric Buckner, making his first appearance in a Panther uniform scored six points on 3-of-6 shooting, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds. Buckner added all three GSU block shots in a team-high 32 minutes.
Late in the second half, Doby's made a lay-up with 2:49 remaining to cut the Cowboys lead to three, but that was as close as the Panthers would get.
Junior James Fields finished the game with 11 points, finishing 7-of-10 from the free throw line. The Panthers hit just 59.3% from the free throw line, making just 16-of-27 shots.
McNeese State made their free throws down the stretch, hitting just over 74 percent from the line for the game, going 23-of-31. The Panthers finished the game committing 24 total fouls.
Patrick Richard, an all-Southland Conference preseason selection, led the Cowboys at the line, going 10-of-12, finishing the game with 17 points. He added five rebounds and dished out four assists in the win.
Kapelan was equally impressive at the line, going 8-of-10 from the charity stripe.
Despite fouling out, Daniel Richard added seven points and three rebounds for the Cowboys who were outrebounded 34-26.
The Panthers' benched outscored McNeese State 36-15.
The two teams combined to shoot 35 free throws in the first half and 58 for the game.
Georgia State will return to Atlanta for the home opener on Friday, Nov. 19 to face former conference rival Troy at 7 p.m. at the GSU Sports Arena. Season and single game tickets are now on-sale for and can be purchased by calling 1-866-GA-STATE or visiting the website at GeorgiaStateSports.com.
--GeorgiaStateSports.com--
