No. 7 GEORGIA STATE (14-16, 8-10) vs. No. 10 MARSHALL (12-19, 7-11) 
Hercules Tire Sun Belt Conference Championship
Thursday, March 7 | 8:30 p.m. ET | Pensacola (Fla.) Bay Center 

WATCH: ESPN+
LISTEN: WRAS-FM 88.5, GSU Athletics app

THE TIPOFF: Georgia State opens play in the 2024 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Conference Championship against Marshall Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Pensacola (Fla.) Bay Center. GSU, the No. 7 seed, and No. 10 seed Marshall, are meeting for the second time in seven days after the Panthers defeated the Thundering Herd 82-79 last Friday in Atlanta in the regular-season finale.

> Georgia State enters the tournament having won five of the last eight games.

> Georgia State has won the Sun Belt Championship four times in the last nine years, most recently in 2022. GSU also captured league titles in 2015, 2018 and 2019. No other team has won more than one in that stretch. 

> The Panthers are 14-6 in the Sun Belt tourney since returning to the league in 2013-14.

> Georgia State earned the No. 7 seed with its 82-79 win over Marshall last Friday in Atlanta. Lucas Taylor scored 26 points, including the clinching points on a spectacular basket with 10 seconds left. Dwon Odom added 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

> Marshall won the first meeting this season, 77-68 on Jan. 24 in Huntington. The Thundering Herd also won both meetings last season to lead the series 3-1.

PLAYER NOTES: 

> Four current Panthers have reached the 1,000-point milestone this season: Brenden Tucker (1,145), Jay'Den Turner (1,170), Dwon Odom (1,092) and Leslie Nkereuwem(1,016). That quartet has combined for 4,423 points.

> Lucas Taylor is the Panthers' leading scorer at 14.3 points per game, which ranks 10th in the Sun Belt. Taylor ended the regular season with 26 points in the win over Marshall, his sixth 20-point game of the season. He scored a career-high 28 points vs.  Georgia Southern. In his second game in a GSU uniform, the Wake Forest transfer scored 27 points in the 77-70 win at Western Michigan, and he added 22 points in the win at South Alabama, 22 vs. Troy and 20 at Georgia Southern.

> Toneari Lane, the team's second-leading scorer at 13.1 ppg, leads the Sun Belt in 3-point percentage (.331) and 3-pointers per game (2.7). His 82 3-pointers are the eighth-highest season total in GSU history.

> Point guard Dwon Odom is averaging 12.0 points, 5.0 rebounds (second on team) and 4.6 assists per game. He is second in the Sun Belt in assists and first in assist-to-turnover ratio at +2.7. The 6-2 guard also has 18 blocked shots, and he is shooting 52.9 percent from the field 84.4 percent from the free throw line (fourth in Sun Belt).

> Odom is the only player in Sun Belt averaging at least five rebounds AND four assists per game.

> Odom scored a career-high 30 points Jan. 27 at Coastal Carolina for the first 30-point game by a Panthers since 2019. 

> Odom has three double-figure rebounding games, and he approached a triple-double vs. Old Dominion (14 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and vs. Marshall (13 points, seven rebounds,10 assists).

> Jay'Den Turner leads the Panthers and ranks No. 5 in the Sun Belt with 8.6 rebounds per game, along with 9.4 points. He is averaged 9.3 rebounds in Sun Belt games. 

> Turner has grabbed double-figure rebounds 12 times this season, including 10 conference games. He had six straight double-figure efforts to open Sun Belt play, a streak that is the longest by a Panther since 1990. Turner has five double-doubles on the season.

> Turner is also 10th in the Sun Belt in steals (1.4 pg), including a career-high five in the win over Coastal Carolina.

> Already a 1,000-point scorer (1,170), Turner is the Sun Belt's active rebounding leader with 977.

> Four of the Panthers' top five scorers are transfers: Lucas Taylor (14.3), Toneari Lane (13.1), Jay'Den Turner (9.4) and Leslie Nkereuwem (8.2). Dwon Odom is third on the team at 12.0 ppg.

> Guard Julian Mackey can provide scoring punch off the bench. He scored a career-high 18 points at James Madison and then followed with 16 points in the win at Old Dominion, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:23 left. 

> In Georgia State's three straight wins over South Alabama, Old Dominion and Georgia Southern, Toneari Lane averaged 20.3 points while going 14-for-33 (43 percent) from 3-point range. Lane scored 20 points at South Alabama (6-for-12 3P) and followed with 23 points (5-for-12 3P) vs. ODU and 18 vs. Georgia Southern. Earlier this season, he also scored 23 points, his career high, in each of the back-to-back wins over Little Rock.

> Sophomore post player Edward Nnamoko scored a career-high 11 points, along with four rebounds, vs. James Madison. He had two of the best games of his career in GSU's back-to-back wins over Louisiana and Miami. He contributed nine points, six rebounds and two blocks off the bench at Louisiana and then followed with four points and nine rebounds vs. Miami. Nnamoko played valuable minutes in the win over Coastal Carolina, including a huge blocked shot and rebound in the final minutes. 

CHARITY CASE: Georgia State leads the Sun Belt in free throw percentage at .764 (No. 31 in D1).
> That is the second-best team free throw percentage in GSU history, bettered only by the 2013-14 team that shot 77.8 percent.

> Dwon Odom is fifth in the Sun Belt at .844, which ranks among the Top 10 seasons in school history.

> The Panthers hit 29-of-32 free throws last week  vs. James Madison, season highs for makes and attempts. 

> 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, and in the win over Arkansas State, GSU hit 23-of-28.