ATLANTA-Georgia
State will play one for the history books on Saturday, facing James Madison in
the Panthers final Colonial Athletic Association road game before moving to the
Sun Belt Conference next season. The Panthers will square off with the Dukes at
the JMU Convocation Center with tip-off set for 4 p.m.
Georgia State (14-15,
9-7 CAA) has won two of its last three, including a split of games earlier this
week in Virginia. James Madison (16-13, 10-6 CAA) has also won two of its last
three, falling by two to first place Northeastern on Wednesday night, 66-64.
The Panthers are
looking to win their final two games and finish above .500 for the second
straight season under second-year head coach Ron Hunter.
“Although we
will not be playing in the CAA Tournament, we still have a lot to play for,”
commented Hunter. “There is a big difference between finishing just above .500
or just below. Our team has come a long way this season and there is no doubt
in my mind that they will give their full effort the last two games to finish
the regular season with a winning record.”
Saturday's game can be heard
live on WRAS-FM 88.5 beginning with the Panther Pregame Show at 3:30 p.m. with
the 'Voice of the Panthers' Dave Cohen calling the action. Live stats and live
video will be available at GeorgiaStateSports.com.
R.J. Hunter finished with 15 points against William &
Mary on Monday, while redshirt-junior Manny Atkins just missed another
double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. It marked the sixth time this
season that Atkins just missed a double-double by one board.
Hunter is making a late season push for All-CAA First Team honors and
Freshman All-America honors. He continues to lead all CAA freshmen in scoring
and rebounding and is one of just four freshmen in the country averaging at
least 17.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. The elite group includes UCLA's
Shabazz Muhammad, UNLV's Anthony Bennett and Arizona State's Jahii Carson. He
is currently fourth in the nation among all freshmen scorers and 68th
overall.
R.J. Hunter, the
only son of head coach Ron Hunter, is averaging a team-high 17.3 points per
game and 18.9 points in CAA-only games, both of which are third in the conference.
He is also collecting 5.2 rebounds per game, 20th in the CAA, and making
2.4 three-pointers per game, third in the league. Hunter is shooting 37.2 percent from beyond
the arc, fifth in the conference.
Hunter
is also averaging the most points of any CAA freshmen since the 1999-2000
season. He is also on pace to score the most points of any GSU freshmen ever.
With two regular season games remaining, he has scored 503 points and is just
12 points shy Matt O'Brien's 1989-90 mark of 515.
Hunter, along with Atkins
are among the top four in the conference in three-point shooting, as the
Panthers are second in the league making 7.1 three-pointers per game.
R.J. Hunter is also
among the CAA leaders in free throw percentage, steals, blocked shots and
defensive rebounds.
“There is no
doubt in my mind that our freshmen have really improved this season,” continued
Hunter. “When you see your freshmen improve over the course of the season, it
makes you know that the program is headed in the right direction. Just the
other night, Markus Crider and David Travers came off the bench to give us 53
minutes combined. The experience that they are getting will really help us in
the years to come.”
Crider played a
career-high 31 minutes on Monday, finishing with eight points and four rebounds
to go along with three assists and three steals against the Tribe. Travers
played 22 minutes, scoring eight points on 4-of-8 shooting, while grabbing a
pair of rebounds and dishing out two assists.
Junior point guard Devonta White, who earned Preseason
All-CAA Second Team honors before the season and was also named to the Bob Cousy
Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award Watch
List by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, is third in the CAA in
minutes played (36.0) and tied for sixth in steals per game, averaging 1.7 per
game.
White is second on the team in scoring, averaging 14.4
points per game, ninth in the CAA, while dishing out 3.9 assists, third most in
the league. He has dished out 71 assists in his last 14 games, including four
games of at least seven assists.
One of three team captains, White, who missed 10 games during his
freshman season due to an injury, is just 39 points away from becoming the 17th
Panther with 1,000 career points. He is just off pace to eclipse that mark by
the end of the year, needing to average 19.5 points per game in the remaining
regular season contests.
Manny Atkins, from nearby Tucker, Ga., is averaging 14.1 points and 6.5
rebounds per game this season, both among the top 12 in the CAA. He is third in
the CAA in three-point field goal percentage, hitting 41.1 percent from beyond the
arc and is eighth in the CAA making 1.8 three-pointers per game.
Lone senior James Vincent played
in his 115th game on Monday to move into a tie for sixth the all-time games
played list. He is second on GSU's all-time blocked shots list with 129 and his
67 blocked shots this season are the third most in a single season in GSU
history.
He is leading the CAA averaging
2.39 blocked shots per game, which also ranks 28th in the NCAA this year.
Junior Rashaad Richardson
rounds out the Panthers starting five averaging 7.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per
game. Richardson finished with 10 points and two steals at William & Mary.
James Madison is led by
Rayshawn Goins, averaging 13.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game this season. He
is one of four Dukes averaging in double figures to go along with Devon Moore,
A.J. Davis and Andrey Semenov.
Following
Saturday's contest, Georgia State will prepare for its final regular season
game of the season, hosting Northeastern for Senior Night on Wednesday.
Tip-time is set for 7 p.m.
www.GeorgiaStateSports.com