What You Need to Know:
* Senior T.J. Shipes recorded a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds to lead Georgia State to a 69-66 overtime win over Georgia Southern on Tuesday night.
* Georgia State and Georgia Southern met for the second-straight year before a capacity crowd in the GSU Sports Arena.
* Five Panthers finished in double figures as Jeremy Hollowell just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
ATLANTA-Senior T.J. Shipes recorded the biggest double-double of his career to lead Georgia State to a 69-66 overtime win over in-state rival Georgia Southern in front of a capacity crowd at the GSU Sports Arena on Tuesday night.
Shipes finished with career highs of 14 points and 13 rebounds, making 6-of-7 field goals. He was one of five Panthers to score in double figures on a night where both teams let big leads slip away.
Georgia State improved to 12-4 and 5-2 in the Sun Belt, just a half-game out of first place. The mark is tied for the second-best 16-game start in program history and improved the Panthers to 34-2 in the GSU Sports Arena since the start of the 2013-14 season.
Despite 23 points and nine rebounds from Ike Smith, Georgia Southern fell to 6-11 and 2-5 in the Sun Belt.
Senior Markus Crider added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Panthers, while redshirt-junior Jeremy Hollowell just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Isaiah Williams and Kevin Ware each added 10 points for Georgia State.
“It might not have been perfect, but at the end of the night, we won the game,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “Any time Georgia State and Georgia Southern play you know it is going to be great and I thought the atmosphere in the arena tonight was unbelievable. Our fans stepped up big tonight and really willed our team to victory.”
Georgia State led 53-49 on a pair of Crider free throws with 4:46 to play before Georgia Southern used a 6-0 run, capped by a Jake Allsmiller 3-pointer to take a 55-53 lead with 1:33 to play.
Hollowell tied the game with a pair of free throws with 34.7 seconds to play and finished the night 9-of-10 from the free throw line. When Mike Hughes missed a long 3-pointer for the Eagles with just seconds remaining, Hollowell grabbed the rebound and dished it ahead to Dennis who hit a 3-pointer from about 30-feet. After the referees reviewed the play, the 3-pointer was called off as it came after the buzzer had sounded.
In overtime, Georgia State got out to a quick start and used a 6-0 run capped by a Crider layup to take a 63-57 lead with 2:27 to play.
After Shipes fouled Allsmiller shooting a 3-pointer and converted all three free throws, Georgia Southern trailed just 67-66 with 30.2 seconds to play.
Hollowell made two more free throws with 14.0 seconds to play to secure the win as a 3-pointer by Tookie Brown was well off the mark as time expired.
Isaiah Dennis came off the bench to add eight points for the Panthers which held Georgia Southern to just 35.0 percent shooting.
Mike Hughes finished with 16 points for the Eagles, while Allsmiller added 11 and Brown scored 10.
Georgia State got off to a quick start taking a 10-2 lead on back to back 3-pointers by Ware and baskets by T.J. Shipes.
Georgia Southern tied the game for the first time at 22-22 with 6:03 to play in the first half before taking its first lead 27-25 on a lay-up by Smith with 1:52 to play. The Eagles maximized a 9-0 run and went into the locker room leading 31-27.
Trailing by 10 with 16:53 to play, Georgia State mounted a comeback using an 18-2 run capped by a lay-up by Isaiah Dennis to take a 47-41 lead with just under 11 minutes remaining.
Georgia State will take to the road and travel to Boone, N.C., to face Appalachian State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN3.
Notes: The win marked the 99th of head coach Ron Hunter's career at Georgia State. He is just eight shy of the school record of 107 . . . The sell-out crowd of 3,854 marked the second-straight year that the match-up with the Panthers and Eagles sold out. It also marked the third-straight year with a capacity of the Sports Arena . . . With the win, Georgia State took a 6-3 lead in the Rivalry Series between for the two schools for the 2015-16 academic year.
