Provo, Utah-BYU opened Tuesday night's game with a 31-2 run and Georgia State was
never able to fully recover, falling to the Cougars, 80-62, at the Marriott
Center in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
Redshirt-junior Manny Atkins scored a
career-high 21 points on 9-of-18 shooting, pulling down a career-high eight
rebounds in the loss.
BYU (2-0) held Georgia State (0-2) to just
35.4 percent shooting and 13.6 percent from three-point range.
Despite trailing by as many as 29 with 10:31
to play in the first half, the Panthers cut the Cougars lead to just 11 points,
56-43, with 9:25 to play, but that is as close as GSU would get.
BYU center Brandon Davies finished with 28 points
on 10-of-14 shooting, making 8-of-10 from the free throw line and grabbing nine
rebounds. Tyler Haws added 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the
Cougars who finished the game shooting 51.7 percent from the floor.
“I thought our guys played hard until the end,”
commented head coach Ron Hunter after the game. “I have to give credit to BYU,
they came out red-hot and pressured us on defense. Those two things took us out
of our game and we were not able to fully recover.
“I am proud of our guys for never giving up
and fighting all the way until the end. If we could have had a couple of shots
fall early and then made some shots under the basket late, who knows what could
have happened.
After opening the season before a sell-out
crowd at No. 8 Duke, Georgia State played in front of a hostile 13,181 tonight.
“Regardless of the outcomes of our first two
games, I know we have a very special team. We have gone up against two of the
best big men in the country and played in two of the most hostile environments
in college basketball. I knew it would take some time for our newcomers to come
together but now we get to go home for seven of our next nine and I know we
will have a great home crowd to cheer us on.”
Atkins, the redshirt-junior transfer from
Virginia Tech, finished with career-highs in nearly every category and sparked
the Panthers second half run. He was 3-of-6 from three-point range and swiped
three steals in 36 minutes of action.
Junior Devonta White added 14 points and five
rebounds for GSU, while freshman R.J. Hunter scored 12 points, going 8-of-9
from the free throw line. Junior Denny Burguillos added nine points and six
rebounds, going 4-of-6 from the floor.
BYU
opened the game red-hot, taking a 15-0 lead and expanding it to 25-2 with 12:41
to play before the first media time-out. The Cougars hit 12 of their first 16
shots, including 5-of-5 from three-point range, forcing Hunter to use two
timeouts before the first media.
Trailing
by 27, 40-13, GSU used a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 40-22 with 1:27 to play in
the first half. Georgia State trailed 44-26 at halftime.
After
shooting over 70 percent for most of the first half, BYU finished the first
half shooting 58.1 percent, including 6-of-12 from three-point range. BYU held
Georgia State to just 26.5 percent shooting and 2-of-12 from three-point range
during the first 20 minutes.
Matt
Carlino added 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, dishing out seven assists and
swiping four steals for BYU.
Georgia
State will return home for seven of its next nine games, including the next
five beginning next Monday. The Panthers will host a regional of the Coaches
vs. Cancer Classic, Nov. 19-21, with Monmouth, South Alabama and Tennessee State
coming to the Sports Arena, Nov. 19-21. The four squads will play six games over
three days. For more information on the event or to purchase tickets, please
visit GeorgiaStateSports.com or call 1-866-GA-STATE.
www.GeorgiaStateSports.com
