Trae Goldston's three-pointer with one second left to play in the game gave the Georgia State Panthers a 57-55 victory over the Northeastern University men's basketball team Saturday afternoon at the Georgia State Sports Arena in Atlanta.
The Huskies had a 55-54 lead with the ball with 19 seconds left when freshman Chaisson Allen was fouled, sending him to the free throw line. Allen however missed the first shot of a 1-and-1 and the Panthers grabbed the rebound. Georgia State set up its final play and Leonard Mendez took a long two-point jumper that hit the rim hard and bounced towards mid-court where Kevin Lott collected the ball and handed it to Goldston who drilled home the game-winner.
The game spoils another strong effort by sophomore captain Matt Janning, who scored a game-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting. He now has scored in double digits in 13 straight games, the longest current streak in the CAA.
The Huskies as a team shot a strong 55 percent, but were plagued by turnovers as Georgia State's defensive pressure led to 20 NU giveaways, tying a season-high.
The Huskies began the game with strong shooting as they got out to an 18-10 lead, thanks to a 9-0 run that was helped by the team's ability to clean up on the offensive glass. Sophomore Nkem Ojougboh picked up junior Chris Alvarez's miss and put it back in to give NU the 11-10 lead at 14:45. Alvarez then grabbed his own miss inside the paint and laid it back in for a 13-10 advantage. Junior Eugene Spates nailed a three at 13:02 for a 16-10 lead and sophomore Manny Adako cleaned up Spates' missed three-pointer with a short jumper just outside the paint for the 18-10 lead with 11:44 left in the first half.
However, Georgia State regrouped out of a media timeout and put a full-court press on the Huskies, forcing Husky turnovers left and right. Michael Moynihan scored seven consecutive points, including five off NU turnovers. His three-pointer at 10:29 cut NU's lead to 18-17.
Moynihan had nine first-half points as the Panthers fought the Huskies hard. Janning broke up Georgia State's momentum with a jumper at 8:17 to make it 20-19 Huskies. He then had a layup at 5:50 and drilled a three-pointer off his dribble at 4:00 to give the Huskies a 27-23 lead. Janning had 11 first-half points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Northeastern shot incredibly well in the first half, going 58 percent from the floor, but the Huskies had a hard time with the Panthers' defensive pressure, committing 12 turnovers that led to 10 Georgia State points. At the end of the half, Lott was fed inside by Rashad Chase for a layup to tie the game at 29-29 going into halftime.
The Huskies controlled most of the second half, taking a 34-33 lead on an Alvarez lay-in from Allen at 18:01. Northeastern controlled that lead until Goldston's game-winning three. Leading up to that, the Huskies had an eight-point lead at 54-46 with 4:47 to play.
Georgia State turned the tide from there as Northeastern was able to only score one more point the rest of the way. Mendez hammered in a three at 3:07 and another one at 2:01 to cut the NU lead to 54-52. Senior Mark Washington was fouled and he hit one of two free throws to make it 55-52. GSU's Justin Billingslea connected on a layup at 1:17 to cut the deficit to one point. That led to Allen's missed free throw, which gave the Panthers the chance to win and they secured the victory.
Moynihan led the Panthers with 15 points while Mendez had 14. Adako, who hails from nearby Decatur, Ga., scored 10 points, had seven rebounds and blocked two shots.
Northeastern is back in action on Wednesday in a CAA showdown with first-place Virginia Commonwealth at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on CN8.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs Georgia State
02/16/08 2:00 p.m. at Atlanta, Ga.-Georgia State Sports Arena
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VISITORS: Northeastern 12-13, 8-7 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Alvarez, Chris...... f 4-6 0-0 0-0 1 6 7 2 8 3 3 0 0 33
32 Adako, Manny........ f 3-5 0-0 4-4 4 3 7 0 10 0 2 2 0 29
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 2 2 2 3 3 0 28
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 4-10 1-6 0-1 0 2 2 3 9 1 3 0 2 34
23 Janning, Matt....... g 7-10 4-5 1-2 2 3 5 2 19 0 3 0 1 38
11 Lima, Vinny......... 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
24 Spates, Eugene...... 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 2 3 0 2 1 0 10
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 5
50 Washington, Mark.... 1-1 0-0 2-4 0 4 4 0 4 0 0 1 0 20
TEAM................ 1 1 2 1
Totals.............. 21-38 6-14 7-12 10 19 29 12 55 6 20 7 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-19 57.9% 2nd Half: 10-19 52.6% Game: 55.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-5 60.0% 2nd Half: 3-9 33.3% Game: 42.9% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-7 57.1% 2nd Half: 3-5 60.0% Game: 58.3% 3
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HOME TEAM: Georgia State 7-18, 4-11 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
15 Chase, Rashad....... f 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 1 1 0 3 22
24 Krubally, Ousman.... f 2-3 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 4 0 1 0 0 9
11 Goldston, Trae...... g 2-5 2-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 6 1 0 0 1 22
12 Moynihan, Michael... g 4-8 2-3 5-8 1 2 3 5 15 2 2 0 1 25
21 Mendez, Leonard..... g 5-14 2-6 2-3 1 0 1 2 14 1 2 0 3 37
04 Mitchell, Norman.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
14 Ali, Jihad.......... 2-5 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 4 1 0 0 1 15
22 Jones, D.J.......... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 1 21
30 Lott, Kevin......... 3-7 1-2 1-2 4 1 5 2 8 1 3 0 1 30
32 Billingslea, Justin. 1-3 0-0 2-2 2 1 3 2 4 3 3 0 1 18
TEAM................ 2 2 2
Totals.............. 20-47 7-14 10-15 11 9 20 16 57 10 14 0 12 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-24 41.7% 2nd Half: 10-23 43.5% Game: 42.6% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-6 33.3% 2nd Half: 5-8 62.5% Game: 50.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 7-9 77.8% 2nd Half: 3-6 50.0% Game: 66.7% 2
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Officials: Louie Andrakakos, James Williams, Jason Page
Technical fouls: Northeastern-Ojougboh, Nkem. Georgia State-None.
Attendance: 1721
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 29 26 - 55
Georgia State................. 29 28 - 57
Points in the paint-NU 16,GAST 26. Points off turnovers-NU 14,GAST 23.
2nd chance points-NU 14,GAST 17. Fast break points-NU 2,GAST 6.
Bench points-NU 7,GAST 18. Score tied-2 times. Lead changed-14 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-04:47, GAST 2nd-00:03.
