What You Need to Know:
* UT Arlington's Erick Neal nailed a 3-pointer with one-second to play to give the Mavericks a 68-67 win over Georgia State on Saturday afternoon.
* Senior Jeremy Hollowell finished with 19 points and six rebounds for the Panthers.
* Georgia State will host Texas State on Monday night in the next-to-last home game of the season.
ATLANTA-Erick Neal's 3-pointer with one-second to play gave UT Arlington a 68-67 come-from-behind win over Georgia State on Saturday afternoon at the GSU Sports Arena.
Georgia State (16-10, 9-5 Sun Belt) lost for the third-straight time following an eight-game winning streak. UT Arlington (20-6, 10-3 Sun Belt) overcame a 15-point second half deficit to win for the fourth-straight time and remain in first place in the conference with two weeks to play.
Senior Jeremy Hollowell led the Panthers with 19 points and six rebounds, while freshman D'Marcus Simonds finished with 11 points.
Kevin Hervey paced the Mavericks with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Drew Charles added 16 points.
Georgia State led by 15, 53-38 with 11:05 to play following a thunderous dunk by senior Isaiah Dennis, however, the Mavericks responded with a 14-0 run to cut the Georgia State lead to one, 53-52, with 7:11 to play.
After UT Arlington tied the game 55-55 with 5:42 remaining, Simonds scored five-straight GSU points to put the Panthers back ahead 60-55.
With 1:02 to play, GSU led 65-61 following a Jorge Bilbao free throw and still lead by three after Hervey knocked down a free throw with 55.2 seconds to play. Jalen Jones, who finished 1-of-6 from 3-point range, made his only trey with 44 seconds to play to tie the game 65-65. Simonds responded with a jumper for Georgia State with 20 seconds remaining to put the Panthers back ahead by two. After a timeout, the Mavericks were able to set-up what proved to be the game winning 3-pointer.
“The guys are devastated, the coaches are devastated,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “The last three games have been tough. You could make a case that we should have won all three, but we didn't and now we need to figure a way to dig ourselves out of this.”
Georgia State opened the game missing its first six shots, before a Hollowell 3-pointer put the Panthers on the board with 17:24 remaining.
The Panthers trailed for nearly 14 of the first 20 minutes of the game and were down five, 21-16, with 5:50 to play.
Trailing 23-20, Georgia State went on a 9-0 run, capped by an Isaiah Williams lay-up, to lead 29-23 with 1:53 to play. Thomas scored five during the run which allowed the Panthers to go into the half leading 31-27.
Senior Willie Clayton finished with eight points and eight rebounds for the Panthers, while junior Isaiah Williams added nine. Sophomore Malik Benlevi chipped in six points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Bilbao and Jones each scored 11 points for the Mavericks, who despite shooting 35.5 percent, managed to force Georgia State in 21 turnovers.
Georgia State will host Texas State in the next-to-last home game of the season on Monday night at 7 p.m. in the GSU Sports Arena. The game will air live on the WatchESPN platform. Tickets for the game can be purchased by visiting GeorgiaStateSports.com/Tix.
