Norfolk, Va.-Sophomore James Vincent earned his first career double-double, but Old Dominion pulled away in the final minutes to earn a 60-43 victory over the Panthers on Tuesday night at the Ted Constant Center. Vincent scored 11 points and finished with a career-high 11 rebounds to lead the Panthers.
Vincent played a career-high 33 minutes off the bench, adding two blocks and two steals, shooting 4-of-5 from the field.
"James has worked extremely hard and tonight it paid off," commented head coach Rod Barnes. "Sometimes you just have to be patient with big men, which is sometimes not easy to do. He was a huge factor in tonight's game and played really well for us."
Old Dominion (21-6, 12-4 CAA) countered with double-doubles from Frank Hassell and Ben Finney in the win.
"I thought our guys played hard. We were almost able to get over the hump a few times, but then Old Dominion would get a rebound and a put back to pull away again," said Barnes. "You have to give them a lot of credit as they are a very good team and did the things they needed to do to win tonight."
The Panthers (11-15, 6-10 CAA) trailed just 47-42 when junior Josh Micheaux scored a put-back on a missed free throw by Vincent with 3:57 to play, before Old Dominion finished the game on a 13-1 run.
Hassell, who scored the game-winning basket over the Panthers in Atlanta, finished with a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season. Finney scored 11 and pulled down 10 boards, including seven on the offensive end.
On a poor shooting night for both teams, each finished with 16 offensive boards as the Monarchs, one of the top rebounding teams in the nation, outrebounded State, 38-37.
Redshirt junior Jihad Ali scored a team-high 14 for Georgia State (11-15, 6-10 CAA), shooting 6-of-12 from the field, including a pair of three-pointers.
Kent Bazemore added 12 points and five rebounds for the Monarchs, who finished 21-28 from the free throw line, while GSU had just 11 attempts, making five.
Georgia State opened with strong defensive play, holding the Monarchs to just one field goal over the first 8:11 of the first half, and led 6-5. Old Dominion used a 20-9 run to build their largest lead of the half, 25-15, before the Panthers finished the half with a spurt.
Ali knocked down his second three of the half and followed it with a jumper with 43 seconds remaining to give the Panthers momentum heading into the half, down just five, 25-20.
Vincent came off the bench to score five points and pull down eight rebounds in 15 minutes of first half action.
Old Dominion tried to pull away early in the second half and extended its lead to 43-33 on a dunk by Hassell with 7:45 to play, but the Panthers continued to fight back and cut the lead to 45-39 on a dunk by freshman Harold Doby off a steal by Vincent.
After GSU cutting the deficit to just five, the Monarchs went a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line over the final 3:25 of the game.
Both teams were coming off of emotional victories on Saturday and it showed as neither team shot well from the floor. ODU earned an 11-point victory at VCU, ending the Rams 22-game home court winning streak, while the Panthers rallied from down 17 to earn a 74-71 overtime victory over Northeastern.
Georgia State will continue its three-game road trip by traveling to Ruston, La. this Saturday to face Louisiana Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. as a part of ESPN's Bracketbusters. The game can be heard live on WRAS-FM 88.5 beginning 30 minutes prior to tip.
--GeorgiaStateSports.com--
