What You Need to Know:
* Georgia State mounted a late second-half comeback that came up just short in an 85-80 loss to Georgia Southern.
* Junior Malik Benlevi recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Panthers.
* The Panthers have lost back-to-back games for just the second time this season.
STATESBORO, Ga.-Despite holding Georgia Southern without a field goal over the last five minutes, Georgia State's furious late second-half comeback fell just short falling to the Eagles 85-80 at Hanner Fieldhouse on Friday night.
Junior Malik Benlevi recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore D'Marcus Simonds just missed a double-double with 21 points and nine rebounds.
Georgia State (19-8, 10-4 Sun Belt) lost back-to-back games for just the second time this year, while Georgia Southern (17-10, 8-6 Sun Belt) snapped a three-game losing streak and defeated the Panthers for a sixth-straight time at home.
Georgia State trailed 73-63 with 3:46 to play before cutting the deficit to just three on a lay-up by Jeff Thomas with 18 seconds to play. However Georgia Southern went 6-of-6 from the free throw line down the stretch and the Panthers could never get closer.
“I'm proud of the way we fought back, but this was the second-straight game where we got off to a rough start and were not able to overcome it,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “We will get home and get ready to head to Texas and look to finish the regular season strong.”
Tookie Brown, who missed the first game in Atlanta due to a concussion, led Georgia Southern with 23 points and five assists, while Montae Glenn just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.
Shooting 55.6 percent in the opening half, Georgia Southern built a lead as big as 15, 33-18 with 4:38 to play in the half.
Georgia State used a 10-0 run to cut the Eagles' lead to 33-28 with 1:38 to play as four Panthers scored during the run.
The Eagles went into the locker room leading 38-30 as Tookie Brown scored 10 points and Ike Smith added eight in the opening 20 minutes.
Georgia State scored the first five points of the second half to cut the Eagles' lead to 38-35 with 18:52 to play.
Leading by three, Georgia Southern used an 11-0 run to push the lead to 51-37 with 15:24 remaining and led 55-40 with 13:05 on the clock.
The Panthers responded with an 8-0 run to once again cut Georgia Southern's lead to single digits, 55-48 with 11:13 to play before the Eagles pushed it back to 13 with just under six minutes to play.
Junior Jeff Thomas added 17 points, knocking down three 3-pointers, while Devin Mitchell scored 12.
Mike Hughes added 14 points for Georgia Southern, while Ike Smith added 11.
Georgia State struggled going 5-of-19 from 3-point range and hit just 17-of-30 from the free throw line.
Georgia State will continue a stretch of three-straight road games traveling to Texas next week to face Texas State on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
