ELON, N.C.-Despite 23 points from redshirt-junior Ryan Harrow, cold-shooting from behind the 3-point arc proved too much to overcome for Georgia State which fell to Canisius 79-71 on Monday night at Alumni Gym in the NIT Season Tipoff Consolation Round.
Redshirt-junior Curtis Washington came off the bench to record his first double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 7-of-9 from the floor in 28 minutes.
Georgia State (2-3) made just 15-percent (3-of-20) from 3-point range, while Canisius (3-2) hit 50-percent from the floor and 56.5-percent from 3-point range, knocking down 13-of-23 from beyond the arc.
Harrow hit 10-of-18 from the floor while the rest of the team went 17-of-45, shooting 37.8 percent.
Canisius got 26 points from senior Billy Baron who hit 8-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Chris Perez, who heated up in the first half to lead the Golden Griffins, finished with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, making three 3s and pulling down seven rebounds.
“When you shoot 3-of-20 from the 3-point line and continue to struggle defensively, it can lead to a rough night,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “We have talked about chemistry and there are some things that we need to figure out right now.
“I told our guys that we just need to keep grinding. November is not when we wanted to play our best basketball this season, but at the same time we need to find our niche and we just have not done that yet.”
Sophomore R.J. Hunter scored 11 points, but went 3-of-13 from the floor and 1-of-8 from 3-point range.
Canisius took an early 13-4 lead as Perez scored seven points early. The Golden Griffins pushed the lead to 19-8, their biggest of the first half before the Panthers responded.
Georgia State cut the deficit to two, 25-23, on a Washington dunk with 6:43 to play in the opening period.
As GSU struggled from 3-point range missing its first six, Canisius knocked down six of its first 10 and shot 50 percent from beyond the arc in the opening period. The Panthers went 1-of-8 in the opening stanza.
Harrow, who scored 15 points in the first half to lead the Panthers, cut the Canisius lead to 35-34 with 1:47 to play, the closest GSU came to overcome the 11-point first half deficit.
Canisius came out hot in the second half again, pushing the lead to 11 points, 49-38, with 15:55 to play before Georgia State responded with an 11-2 run to trail 51-49 with 12:25 remaining.
The Golden Griffins once again responded and pushed the lead to 69-58 with 4:30 to play on a 3-pointer with Jeremiah Williams.
GSU tried to rally one last time and cut the Canisius lead to 71-64 on a Hunter layup with 2:08 to play. Following a steal by Rashaad Richardson, Markus Crider made a pair of free throws cutting the lead to five with just under two minutes remaining.
Barron responded with a 3-pointer for Canisius from five-feet behind the 3-point arc to end any chance of a Georgia State comeback.
After outrebounding Canisius 23-16 in the first half, the Golden Griffins outrebounded Georgia State 22-11 in the second half.
Georgia State outscored Canisius 42-18 in the paint, but the cold shooting from 3-point range was too much to overcome.
Jordan Heath added 13 points, five rebounds and four assists for Canisius.
Richardson came off the bench for the Panthers, scoring eight points, grabbing five rebounds and swiping four steals.
The Panthers will return to action Tuesday night facing host Elon at 7:30 p.m. from Alumni Gym. The game can be heard live on 1340 the Fan 3 and WRAS-FM 88.5, with Dave Cohen, now in his 31st year as the Voice of the Panthers, being joined by 1340 the Fan 3's Brandon Leak. Live statistics are available at GeorgiaStateSports.com.
