What You Need to Know:
* Georgia State snapped UL Monroe's 18-game home court winning streak with a 73-65 overtime win on Saturday afternoon.
* Senior Jeremy Hollowell led the Panthers with 24 points, just one shy of a career-high and the seventh time scoring 20 or more points this season.
* Sophomore Malik Benlevi played a career-high 39 minutes and finished with 19 points and four steals in the win.
MONROE, La.-Georgia State scored the first nine points of overtime to earn a 73-65 win over UL Monroe on Saturday afternoon at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The win snapped the Warhawks 18-game home court winning streak which had been the seventh-longest in the nation entering the day.
Senior Jeremy Hollowell led the Panthers with 24 points and five rebounds, the seventh-time this season scoring 20 or more points. Hollowell finished just one point shy of a career high.
Georgia State (9-7, 2-2 Sun Belt) played close to full strength for the first time in nearly three weeks as both Isaiah Williams and D'Marcus Simonds returned to the line-up following injuries.
Williams finished with 14 points while Simonds helped limit UL Monroe (6-11, 0-4 Sun Belt) to just 39.3 percent shooting.
Sophomore Malik Benlevi added 19 points and four rebounds, playing a career-high in minutes (39) for the third-game in a row.
“This is a good win for us,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “This is the first time we have been near full strength since the win over Middle Tennessee last month. We needed D'Marcus back. He didn't play great on offense, but when he was in the game we were a different team defensively which is what we needed.”
After ULM took an early 4-2 lead, Georgia State responded with an 8-0 run to take a 10-4 lead with 13:42 to play while holding the Warhawks without a field goal for more than six minutes.
Georgia State built a 15-10 lead before ULM responded with a 6-0 run to take a 16-15 lead with 9:26 to play in the opening half.
After the Panthers retook the lead 19-16, ULM responded with a 7-0 run to build a 23-19 lead with 5:39 remaining and went into the locker room leading 28-26.
Hollowell led the Panthers with 13 points in the first 20 minutes as neither team shot better than 42 percent.
Georgia State came out of the locker room and scored the first five points. Halfway thru the second half, leading 39-38, Georgia State used an 8-0 run to push the lead to 47-38, its largest of the game, with 11:13 to play.
With Georgia State still leading 52-45, ULM responded with a 10-0 run to take a 55-52 lead with under three minutes to play before Benlevi knocked down a pair of free throws.
After a lay-up by ULM's Nick Coppola, Williams drove to the hole to get the Panthers back to down one, 57-56, with 1:25 to play.
On the next possession, Georgia State forced one of 22 ULM turnovers and Benlevi hit a 3-pointer to give GSU a 59-57 lead with 47 seconds to play. The Warhawks tied it on a Marcus Washington jumper, but after he missed a free throw, the Panthers got the rebound and held the ball for the final 30 seconds. Simonds drove to the lane for a potential game-winning bucket, but where not able to get a shot off as time ran out.
Sam McDaniel finished the game with 11 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Warhawks, while Travis Munnings and Coppola also scored 11 points each.
Senior Willie Clayton added a team-high 12 rebounds for the Panthers, while senior Isaiah Dennis scored seven points and had four assists.
The win marked Georgia State's 75th win since the start of the 2013-14 season.
Georgia State will travel south on Saturday night from Monroe to Lafayette and start preparations for Louisiana on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET in the CajunDome.
