ATLANTA-Senior Ryan Harrow scored a season-high 27 points to lead Georgia State to a 68-55 win over Southern Miss on Sunday afternoon at the GSU Sports Arena.
Harrow knocked down a career-high five 3-pointers, including four in the first nine minutes of the game. He finished 11-of-21 from the floor and 5-of-8 from 3-point range, dishing out three assists and swiping three of the Panthers 12 steals.
Georgia State (7-3) won its 16th-straight home game which is now tied for the ninth-longest streak in the country with North Dakota State. Southern Miss lost its second straight game to fall to 5-5.
The Panthers have now won 29 of their last 35 games dating back to last season.
Junior R.J. Hunter battled flu-like symptoms before the game and missed the start of the second half getting extra fluids. He finished with 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds in 31 minutes of action.
Redshirt-junior Kevin Ware chipped in with eight points and three steals, while senior Ryan Green added four points and set a career-high with six rebounds in the win.
“This was a really good win for us,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “We really needed a bounce-back win after Wednesday night. With R.J. sick, we needed someone to step up and Ryan Harrow did that. To be honest, everyone on the team stepped up and played really well this afternoon.
“As I have said, everyone wants to talk about our offensive, but once again, I thought it was our defense that stepped up big today. We forced 22 turnovers and scored nearly half of our points from those turnovers. When you get do that, you are not going to lose too many games.”
Southern Miss took an early 15-14 lead before Georgia State scored eight-straight points to take a 22-15 lead with under 10 minutes to play in the first half.
Harrow keyed the Panthers' offense scoring 14 of Georgia State's first 22 points of the game during that stretch and finished the first half with 19.
The Panthers pushed the run to 20-3 to take 34-18 lead with just under four minutes remaining in the half. It was GSU's biggest lead in the first 20 minutes. Georgia State went into the locker room with 38-29 lead as Southern Miss closed strong with an 11-4 run.
Southern Miss got as close as five, 38-33, early in the second half before a Harrow lay-up with 15:40 to play pushed the lead back to seven.
The Panthers ran off six-straight points to push the lead to 44-33 with under 14 minutes to play. After a Southern Miss basket, Georgia State went on another 10-0 run to push the lead to 54-35 with 9:26 to play.
Georgia State led by as many as 21, 61-40 with 2:16 to play.
Southern Miss was led by Chip Armelin who scored 16 points, while Rasham Suarez added 12. Matt Bingaya, the Golden Eagles leading scorer was held to 10 points and six rebounds.
Senior Curtis Washington came off the bench to tie for the team lead with six boards.
Georgia State, which had been struggling from the free throw line, finished the game 12-of-13, including 10-of-11 in the second half.
Georgia State will return to the court next Saturday traveling to Green Bay for the second game of a one season home-and-home. The Panthers beat the Phoenix 72-48 on Dec. 4. Tip time is set for 1 p.m. ET and can be seen live on ESPN3.
