GEORGIA STATE (4-4) at MERCER (2-6)
Saturday, Dec. 9 | 2 p.m. | Hawkins Arena 

WATCH: ESPN+
LISTEN: Georgia State Radio Network on WGTJ-FM 97.5, GSU Athletics mobile app

THE TIPOFF: Coming off an 89-57 win over Middle Georgia State, Georgia State faces another in-state foe as the Panthers travel to Mercer Saturday at 2 p.m.

> In Monday's win over Middle Georgia State, Jay'Den Turner scored  season-high 19 points, and he was joined in double figures by Toneari Lane (15), Julian Mackey (14), DwonOdom (11) and Lucas Taylor (11). The Panthers shot 50 percent for the game, including 58 percent in the second half, hit a season-high 12 3-pointers.

> Georgia State has had five double-scorers in four of the last five games.

> The Panthers are playing on the road for the sixth time in their first nine games.

> Georgia State leads the Sun Belt in free throw percentage at .771. In the overtime win at Little Rock, the Panthers went 22-for-22 at the free throw line in the second half and 29-for-34 in the game.

> The Panthers' top three scorers are the transfer trio of Lucas Taylor (14.0), Toneari Lane (13.3) and Jay'Den Turner (11.6)

> Lucas Taylor is the Panthers' leading scorer at 14.0 points per game, which ranks 10th in the Sun Belt. The Wake Forest transfer poured in a career-high 27 points in the 77-70 win at Western Michigan.

> Toneari Lane, the transfer from Winthrop, scored a career-high 23 points in each of the back-to-back wins over Little Rock. He hit nine 3-pointers and 11-of-13 free throws in the two games while averaging 5.0 rebounds.

> Lane leads the Sun Belt with 2.9 3-pointers made and ranks fifth in 3-point percentage at .354. He is averaging 13.3 points per game.

> In the 93-90 overtime win at Little Rock (Nov. 22), the Panthers rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second half after trailing 61-44 with 14 minutes to play. That is GSU's largest second-half comeback since overcoming a 22-point second-half deficit to win at Alabama in 2018-19. Lane, who scored 23 in the game, started the comeback with nine straight points on back-to-back treys and then three free throws.

> Jay'Den Turner, the graduate transfer from Queens, leads the Panthers and ranks No. 4 in the Sun Belt with 8.5 rebounds per game, along with 11.6 points per game and a team-leading 11 steals. Turner is coming off a season-high 19 points vs. Middle Georgia State, when he connected on 7-of-9 from the field, including 4-for-5 on 3-pointers. 

> In the overtime win at Little Rock, Turner had 16 points and eight rebounds, including six of GSU's 10 points in overtime. In one sequence, he hit the go-ahead 3-pointer, grabbed a steal, made a layup and then drew a charge. 

> Preseason All-Sun Belt guard Dwon Odom, the Panthers' top returning scorer, is averaging 10.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. He is second in the Sun Belt in assists while leading in assist-to-turnover ratio at +3.6.

> Senior guard Brenden Tucker, another Preseason All-Sun Belt selection, reached the 1,000-point milestone for his career last game vs. Middle Georgia State. He averaged 12.9 ppg for the Panthers last season after scoring 569 points in three seasons at Charleston. 

> Tucker went 9-for-11 from the free throw line in the overtime win at Little Rock, including the tying free throws with 15 seconds left in regulation.

SERIES VS. MERCER: Mercer has a 47-40 lead in the all-time series, which began in 1963-64, but in recent years, Georgia State has enjoyed the upper hand.

> The teams are meeting in the regular season for the sixth straight year, including a home-and-home in 2020-21, with the Panthers winning four of the six in that stretch.

> Last season Georgia State earned an 85083 win at the GSU Convocation Center as Dwon Odom scored 16 of his career-high 21points after halftime. The Panthers trailed 77-73 with less than a minute in regulation when Odom hit two free throws to cut the deficit to two with 46 seconds left. He rebounded Mercer's miss with 20 seconds to go to set up his game-tying jumper with one second left to force overtime.

> The Panthers are 20-5 vs. Mercer over the last 25 games, dating back to 1996, including a 13-game winning streak from 1996 through 2002.

> Georgia State has won 30 of the last 40 meetings, dating back to 1990.

> Mercer won the last meeting in Macon, game, 83-77 in 2021-11.

ADDING EXPERIENCE: Head coach Jonas Hayes and his staff have rebuilt the GSU roster with addition of six transfers and two freshmen. 

> The six-pack of transfers includes experienced graduate transfers Leslie Nkereuwem (Longwood) and Jay'Den Turner (Queens). That duo combined to play in 219 games with 1,657 points and 1,124 points between them over the last four seasons. 

> Nkereuwem  averaged 8.4 points and 3.1 rebounds at Longwood in 2022-23.

> Last season at Queens, Turner led the Atlantic Sun Conference with 7.5 rebounds per game while scoring 8.4 ppg.

> Sophomore Toneari Lane averaged 10.3 points 2.4 rebounds in 34 games at Winthrop last season, while sophomore Rickey Bradley Jr. started 27 of 31 games at VMI, averaging 9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds.

PRIDE OF THE PEACH STATE: Georgia State is the winningest Division I college basketball team in the state of Georgia since the 2011-12 season.

> Since the start of 2011-12, Georgia State has won 62 percent of its games with a record of 238-150.

> Georgia State's 238 victories are more than Mercer, the next best team in the state with 228 wins during that time.

> The Panthers also easily outpace Georgia Southern (203), Georgia (197), Georgia Tech (189) and Kennesaw State (114).

> Georgia State has made four NCAA Tournament appearances in the last decade; the other five Division I programs have combined for four NCAA appearances in that time (Georgia-1, Georgia Tech-1, Mercer-1, Kennesaw State-1).