What You Need to Know:
* Georgia State could not overcome an 18-point second half deficit and fell to Appalachian State 76-67 on Thursday night at the Holmes Convocation Center.
* Junior Isaiah Dennis scored a career-high 18 points, while redshirt-freshman Jeff Thomas added 17.
* After four games in eight days, Georgia State will now have a week off before returning to the court next Thursday at Arkansas State.
BOONE, N.C.-Georgia State could not overcome a big first half deficit and fell to Appalachian State 76-67 on Thursday night at the Holmes Convention Center. Junior Isaiah Dennis scored a career-high 18 points, but the Panthers couldn't overcome 12 Mountaineer 3-pointers.
Dennis, one of four Panthers to finish in double figures, went 9-of-13 from the floor, but 0-of-6 from the free throw line. Redshirt-freshman Jeff Thomas added 17 points, including 6-of-9 from the floor with three 3-pointers, while Kevin Ware added 11 and Jeremy Hollowell scored 10.
Georgia State fell to 12-5 overall and 5-3 in the Sun Belt, while Appalachian State improved to 5-13 and 3-4 in the league.
The Mountaineers were led by the Sun Belt's leading scorer Frank Eaves who scored 25 points, knocking down five 3-pointers. Ronshad Shabazz added 20 points and Chris Burgess scored 12.
The loss was just the Panthers ninth in 46 conference games since returning to the Sun Belt. Georgia State forced 22 turnovers which led to 23 points, but went just 13-of-21 from the free throw line. GSU, which leads the Sun Belt in field goal percentage, hit just 42 percent from the floor.
After the two teams were nearly equal the first seven minutes in which Appalachian State led 11-10, the Mountaineers started to heat up and took a 19-12 lead on a Burgess 3-pointer with 9:19 remaining in the first half.
Hitting 6-of-13 from 3-point range in the first half, Appalachian State went into the locker room leading 38-22 after Shabazz hit a 3-pointer as the clock hit zero.
Georgia State was held to just 33 percent shooting in the first half and 0-of-3 from 3-point range, while turning the ball over eight times in the first 20 minutes.
Appalachian State pushed the lead to as many as 18, 46-28, on an Eaves 3-pointer with 15:48 to play.
Georgia State started to build a comeback and cut it to just eight, 51-43 on a lay-up by Thomas with 8:57 remaining. The Panthers would cut the deficit to six, 70-64, with 57 seconds remaining, but unfortunately that is as close as GSU would get.
Coming off a double-double, senior T.J. Shipes added seven points and seven rebounds.
Jacob Lawson added seven points and seven rebounds for the Mountaineers who topped the Panthers for the second-straight year in Boone.
Georgia State will have a rare Saturday off before traveling to Arkansas next week. The two-game trip will start at Arkansas State on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
