Early Second-Half Run Pushes Georgia State Past Troy

Friday, February 19

Atlanta, Ga.

5 p.m.

Troy University

10-13,4-9Sun Belt

Georgia State

10-5,4-4Sun Belt

Troy

Georgia St.

Early Second-Half Run Pushes Georgia State Past Troy

2/19/2021 8:08:00 PM | Basketball (M)

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Troy Athletics Communications

ATLANTA -- Despite 18 points from Nick Stampley and 16 points from Khalyl Waters, the Troy men's basketball program fell 80-66 Friday night to the Georgia State Panthers at the GSU Sports Complex.

After trailing just 37-34 at the break, the Trojans allowed Georgia State to score the first eight points out of the break.

The 8-0 Panthers surge ultimately ballooned to a 26-12 over the first 10:41 of the second period, giving the Panthers a 63-46 lead with 10:16 to play.

Troy (10-13, 4-9 Sun Belt) did score 12 of the next 18 to cut the Panthers lead to 69-58 with 6:36 to play, but Georgia State scored 11 of the final 19 points to cruise to an 80-66 victory.

After allowing 10 of the first 14 points of the game, the Trojans settled down defensively, using a 9-1 run to take a 13-11 lead with 14:23 to play. The run was capped by a four-point play from Waters who nailed a triple and was fouled.

Georgia State (10-5, 4-4 Sun Belt) would score nine of the next 12 to take a 20-16 lead with 9:54 to play.

A triple from freshman Duke Miles combined with free throws from Stampley allowed the Trojans to tie the contest at 25 with 6:13 to play.

Led by Miles and Stampley, the Trojans scored nine of the next 16 points to take a 34-32 lead with 1:58 to play in the period.

Over the final 61 seconds, Georgia State went on a 5-0 run to take the 37-34 lead into the break.

In the first period, Stampley scored a game-high 10 points, while Waters and Miles added eight and seven respectfully. Kane Williams led the Panthers with 10 points, while Jalen Thomas added nine.

Following the break, the Panthers led by 15 points from Corey Allen and eight more from Eliel Nsoseme outscored the Trojans 43-32.

The Trojans were led by Stampley's 18 and the 16 points from Waters, while GSU placed all five of its starters in double-figures led by Thomas, Allen and Williams who each finished with 15.

Troy returns to action tomorrow afternoon when they close the season series with the Panthers. Tip-off from Atlanta is set for 3 p.m. Central.

HEAD COACH SCOTT CROSS:
"This definitely wasn't our best performance. We weren't anywhere near as tough as we needed to be. The toughest team always wins, and from the start Georgia State was tougher than we were. The beautiful thing is we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves tomorrow. Hopefully we'll bounce back and play as hard as we can because we need to redeem ourselves after this performance. Their offensive rebounds really hurt us. They got 13 of them and we had just 16 defensive rebounds. On paper, we're one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the league, but we got man-handled on the glass. We have to be better tomorrow at taking care of the ball too because our turnovers led to easy buckets because they're live ball turnovers. It doesn't matter what kind of defense you play, if you throw the ball to the other team and they have a two-on-one or three-on-two it's hard to defend. Again offensive rebounds and turnovers are two of the most important factors to winning or losing basketball games."

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Troy was outrebounded 35-24, and falls to 0-7 this season when getting outrebounded.
• Stampley recorded his team-leading 12th game with at least 10 points. He has now scored in double-figures in seven of his last eight games.
• After holding Georgia State to just 2-of-10 from deep in the first half, the Panthers shot 5-for-8 (62.5 percent) in the final period.
• Georgia State grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, turning those 13 offensive boards into 23 second-chance points.
• After turning the ball over 11 times in the first period, the Trojans recorded just four turnovers in the second period. The Panthers scored 19 points of the 15 Troy turnovers.
• The Trojans fall to 0-10 this season when trailing at the break.
• Miles scored in double-figures for the fifth consecutive game.
• Junior Zay Williams was held to just two points and one rebound. It's the first time Williams was held to two or fewer points since last Jan. 4 at Louisiana where he failed to score.
• His one rebound is the fewest he's had in a game since Feb. 9, 2019 at Arkansas State.