Road Trip: Panthers Face Mississippi State Tuesday

ATLANTA-Looking for a third-straight win when facing a SEC opponent, the Georgia State men's basketball team will travel to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET, at Humphrey Coliseum.

Georgia State (5-3) has not faced an SEC opponent since the 2018-19 season, but that year the Panthers took down both Georgia and Alabama just weeks apart. Now GSU will look to top Mississippi State (6-3) for the first time in four tries and beat a Southeastern Conference opponent for the seventh time in program history.

Georgia State has not played since last Monday night, an 80-51 win over Voorhees College, prior to final exams getting underway. The Panthers will enter play the healthiest they have been all season while facing a three-game stretch to finish non-conference play that will be the toughest of the year.

Senior Justin Roberts continues to lead the Panthers in scoring averaging 16.9 points per game, while shooting 51.3 percent from the floor and 45.7 percent from 3-point range. Fellow senior Corey Allen is second on the team averaging 15.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while Kane Williams is adding 15.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest. Allen just missed a triple-double with 11 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists against Voorhees College last Monday night.

Williams became the program's all-time wins leader last Monday with 88 and is now just 28 points shy of sixth place on the Georgia State career scoring list with 1,347 points. He already has more free throw attempts than any other player in program history, is second in free throws made, and just four appearances shy of playing in more games than any other player in program history.

Georgia State enters the game No. 16 in the NCAA in turnovers forced at 18.12 per game, No. 17 in turnover margin at +5.2, and No. 34 in the country averaging 9.4 steals per game.

Broadcast Information

Radio: WRAS-FM 88.5; PbP: Dave Cohen
Television: ESPN+; PbP: Bart Gregory, Color: Charlie Winfield

Game Notes

Georgia State and Mississippi State will be meeting for the fourth time. All four games have come in the last 20 years.
Georgia State currently has a two-game winning streak against SEC schools having knocked off Georgia and Alabama during the 2018-19 season.
The Panthers have six wins all-time over SEC schools, half of which have come against Georgia.
With the win last Monday night, senior Kane Williams became the all-time wins leader in GSU program history (88) moving ahead of Ryann Green and Chris Clerkley.
The Panthers tied a school-record with 21 steals in the win over Brewton-Parker on opening night. Georgia State also allowed just 10 first half points, a school record and tied for the fewest in the NCAA this year.
Third year head coach Rob Lanier is closing in on 100 wins for his career (98). He previously spent four years as the head coach at Siena.
GSU earned the top spot in the annual Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll as selected by the coaches.
Seniors Corey Allen (1st Team), Kane Williams (Second Team) and Eliel Nsoseme (Second Team) were all selected to the All-Sun Belt Preseason Teams before the start of the season.
Kane Williams broke Terrence Brandon's school record of 531 career free throw attempts last year and now has 597. He is second all-time with 434 made free throws, trailing only R.J. Hunter's school record of 448.
Williams is current in 7th on GSU's all-time scoring list with 1,347 career points. He is currently 28 points behind Chavelo Holmes for sixth and is 472 points behind R.J. Hunter's school record of 1,819.
Corey Allen has 1,689 career points scored which is among the top 30 career active scorers in the country. He has scored 838 of those points at GSU. He just missed a triple-double with 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists against Voorhees.
Senior Justin Roberts now has 961 career points including 832 in a Panther uniform. He and Allen are looking to become the 24th and 25th 1,000 point scorers in program history.
Georgia State has won 55-straight games dating back to 1999 when scoring 90 or more points.
Georgia State is ranked No. 33 in the country with 9.4 steals per game and No. 17 with a +5.2 turnover margin.
Georgia State is under the leadership of third-year head coach Rob Lanier. His first two-season .648 winning percentage (35-19 record) is the best of any GSU head coach in their first two years leading the program.
Since returning to the Sun Belt in 2013-14, Georgia State has finished in the top two of the final regular season conference standings six times in eight seasons.
During that same time, GSU has won more games (174) than any other NCAA Division I team in Georgia.

Following the game on Tuesday, Georgia State will return home to face Toccoa Falls on Saturday at 6 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN+ and on the GSU Mobile App.

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