The good and bad of GSU’s win in the CAA tournament
Eric Buckner scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Panthers. Devonta White added 13 points.
The Panthers set a school record for points in the CAA tournament, breaking the previous record of 72 set against Towson in 2005-06. It was also the most points the Panthers have scored against a CAA team this season. It was also the largest margin of victory in CAA tournament history.
Here’s the good and bad of the victory:
GOOD
Eric Buckner. The senior may have turned the disappointment and not being named the conference’s defensive player of the year on Friday into emotional fuel.
Free-throw shooting. The Panthers hit 20 of 24, which is a rare occurrence this season.. Hunter joked that he hoped no one would bring it up after the game.
Defense. The Panthers forced the Pride to shoot 34.8 percent, including 28.6 percent in the second half. Mike Moore, who led the CAA with 20 points per game, scored 16 on 5 of 11 shooting.
Killer instinct. Georgia State turned a seven-point lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half into a 22-point lead with 3:13 remaining. Putting away a team quickly and early is something the Panthers have rarely done this season. Doing so also allowed Hunter to rest his starters in the second half. The team needs to win four games in four days to earn the automatic bid to the CAA tournament. Hunter said the team has had leads of 15 points eight times this season and failed to build on it.
BAD
8:30 starts? The sixth-seeded Panthers will play third-seeded George Mason (23-8) at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the quarterfinals. The Patriots defeated the Panthers 61-58 earlier this season. Such starts are bad for print deadlines.
History. The Panthers have made it to the second round of the CAA tournament five times in the past seven years, but have never advanced to the semifinals.
– Doug Roberson, AJC. Please follow me on twitter @ajcgsu, and I hope you made it through the storms OK.
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11 comments Add your comment
Occupy Hunterville
March 2nd, 2012
11:34 pm
Killer! If only Dave Cohen was in sync with the web broadcast.
GeorgiaState1913
March 2nd, 2012
11:36 pm
Eric Buckner will eat your soul.
Matt
March 2nd, 2012
11:49 pm
Cross our fingers they play like that the next three nights!
GSU
March 3rd, 2012
12:09 am
FIRE LEVICK!!!
Ryan
March 3rd, 2012
12:21 am
A few more notes:
-This was the largest margin of victory in tournament history
-With the 21st win of the season the team now haw the 2nd most in school history
-Buckner did all that in only 23 minutes of play
panther
March 3rd, 2012
12:25 am
Doug- Do you know if the post game press conference is up online anywhere? Sounds like Coach was pretty entertaining.
GSU is in Atlanta
March 3rd, 2012
12:29 am
CAA…Welcome to H3LL!!!
Doug Roberson
March 3rd, 2012
12:34 am
Check http://www.caasports.com
Sluggo
March 3rd, 2012
1:53 am
Truly a wonderful opening statement. Furthermore, GMU has been placed on notice. Go Panthers!
panther
March 3rd, 2012
3:20 am
Sitting in the hotel in Richmond finally resting. Gotta have my voice back tomorrow. You should look around some of the other CAA school forums and see what they’re saying about us.
Panthersville.com
March 3rd, 2012
10:01 am
Nice to see that the “bad” list had nothing to do with quality of play
Not much to fault in that game.