What You Need to Know:
* Georgia State fell to UL Monroe 91-78 on Saturday afternoon at Fant-Ewing Coliseum in Monroe, La.
* Markus Crider finished with a team-high 18 points, while Jeff Thomas came off the bench with 13 second-half points.
* Georgia State will be the No. 6 seed in next week's Sun Belt Conference tournament. The Panthers opponent will be known later tonight.
MONROE, La.-Despite 18 points from Markus Crider and four Panthers in double figures, Georgia State fell to UL Monroe 91-78 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both schools.
With the loss, Georgia State (16-13, 9-11 Sun Belt) will be the No. 6 seed in next week's Sun Belt Conference tournament and play on Thursday at 8:15 p.m. ET. The Panthers opponent will be known later on Saturday night.
Crider finished 5-of-6 from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Redshirt-junior Jeremy Hollowell added 16 points, while redshirt-freshman Jeff Thomas came off the bench to score 13 in the second half, including three 3-pointers.
UL Monroe (19-12, 15-5 Sun Belt) finished with four players in double figures, led by Majok Deng's 22 points and seven rebounds, as ULM won for the ninth-straight time. The Warhawks, which shot 59.6 percent from the floor, finished the regular season 13-0 at home and will be the No. 2 seed in next week's conference tournament.
DeMondre Harvey went 11-of-12 from the free line and finished with 17 points and seven rebounds for ULM. The Warhawks went 21-of-25 from the free throw line and outrebounded the Panthers 34-20 to earn the win.
“Although we are disappointed with the loss, I am proud of how hard our guys played,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “We got off to a nice start, but once we got down, we tried to press them and it led to some easy baskets. We tried to get back into the game late, but ULM was able to fight right back. We will head home and get ready to go to New Orleans for the conference tournament.”
Early in the first half, the two teams saw six lead changes and four ties lead to a game tied at 15-15 with 12:10 to play.
Georgia State took control of the game with a 10-0 run to lead 25-15 with 9:51 remaining as Williams knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Austin Donaldson provided a spark driving to the lane for a bucket. Donaldson, coming off a career-high 13 points, finished with nine and four assists.
UL Monroe responded with a 16-0 run, holding Georgia State scoreless for more than five minutes, to build a 36-28 lead with 2:16 to play. The Warhawks went into the locker room leading 41-32 after knocking down six 3-pointers in the first half and going 9-of-9 from the free throw line.
The Warhawks opened the second half with a 6-0 run to push the lead to 47-32 with 17:58 and led by 18 with 13:22 to play.
Trailing 68-52, Thomas knocked down 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead to 10 with 7:47 to play. Unfortunately, ULM immediately responded with a 6-0 run to put the game away.
Isaiah Williams finished with 10 points for the Panthers, but Kevin Ware was held to just one point despite dishing out six assists.
Justin Roberson added 19 points and six rebounds for the Warhawks, while Jamaal Samuel finished with 12.
Georgia State will learn its match-up in the first round of the Sun Belt conference tournament later tonight. The Panthers will play at either 6 or 8:15 p.m. ET on Thursday live on ESPN3.
Notes: The loss marked the first for the Panthers in the regular season in March since 2012…With three rebounds, Markus Crider is now tied with Keven Davis for seventh on Georgia State's all-time rebounding list with 583 and just three behind Chris Collier for sixth.
What You Need to Know:
* Georgia State will close out the regular season facing UL Monroe on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET live on ESPN3.
* With a win and a Georgia Southern loss, the Panthers will be the No. 5 seed in next week's Sun Belt Conference tournament. A loss or a Georgia Southern win and the Panthers are the No. 6 seed.
* Georgia State improved to 11-3 in the month of March since 2014.
ATLANT
