Troy Falls at Georgia State

Wednesday, February 13

Atlanta, Ga.

6 p.m.

Troy University

11-13, 4-8SBC

Georgia State

17-8, 8-4SBC

Troy

Georgia State

2/13/2019 9:16:00 PM | Basketball (M)

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Troy Athletics Communications

Atlanta, Ga. – Troy was unable to slow down Georgia State In the second half and suffered a 77-63 loss in Sun Belt Conference men's basketball action inside of GSU Sports Arena on Wednesday night.

The Trojans (11-13, 4-8 Sun Belt) started the second half cold allowing the Panthers (17-8, 8-4 Sun Belt) to begin the half on a 17-3 run to take a commanding 51-36 lead that it would not let up.

Sophomore Javan Johnson led the Trojans with 13 points, a career-high five assists, three rebounds, a pair of steals and a block. Senior Alex Hicks poured in 10 points with five rebounds and a block.

Junior Devante Foster added 10 points, beginning the game going a perfect 4-of-4 from the field, alongside four rebounds on the night.

Troy battled with Georgia State in the first half with both teams shooting the ball well as the Trojans shot 42.9 percent (12-of-28) while the Panthers put up 52 percent (13-of-25). Freshman Spencer Rodgers nailed a three-pointer with five seconds remaining to send Troy to the locker room trailing by just one point, 34-33.

The Trojans struggled to begin the second half as they saw their one-point deficit turn into an 11-point deficit with 16:05 remaining. Georgia State led by as many as 18 (59-41, 12:10) in the second but Troy fought hard to bring the score to 73-63 with 1:13 left before going cold to end the game.

QUOTING COACH CUNNINGHAM
"I was proud of how hard we played and how hard we competed for most of the game. We had one stretch in the first half where the game got away from us but the guys who were in the game and the end did a superb job of getting us back in the game."

"I thought the game swung their way in the first five minutes of the second half; they went on a run, made some big threes and we had a couple of turnovers. I thought we kept playing hard and had some good moments down the stretch. I thought Devante Foster and KJ Simon sparked us especially with KJ playing majority of the second half. We just didn't play well enough to beat a team like that, we had to be really good at the three-point line in that matchup zone and we weren't."

QUICK HITS
- Troy bench outscored GSU's 23-18 with 10 coming from Foster on an effective 4-of-6 shooting
- Johnson is averaging 14.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game over the last six games
- The loss marked the first loss in GSU Sports Arena since Jan. 7, 2016, when the Trojans fell just short in a 72-68 loss

UP NEXT
Troy will face Georgia Southern on Friday night at 8 p.m. (CT) with the game televised live on ESPN2.