South Alabama Edges Past Georgia State in Thrilling Comeback

South Alabama once again found itself in a nail-biting situation, but this time, they managed to pull through. The Jaguars defeated Sun Belt Conference rival Georgia State 69-67 on Saturday at the Mitchell Center, marking their third consecutive win. With this victory, South Alabama (16-6, 7-3 Sun Belt) remains just half a game behind first-place Troy in the conference standings.

“We found a way,” said South Alabama coach Richie Riley. “The thing about conference play is when you get to this stage — of the back half especially, I say this all the time. One team wins, one team loses, one team goes up, one team goes down. We’re moving up in the standings. We won, and it was not our best stuff. We didn’t play very well.”

“… But just proud of our guys. Like I said, we didn’t have our best stuff, but we found a way and we’ll take it and we’ll move on.”

This wasn’t the first time South Alabama had to come from behind. Just two days earlier, they let a 12-point lead slip against Coastal Carolina, only to secure a 53-48 win with five final points. On Saturday, the Jaguars led the entire second half, but still faced some tense moments late in the game.

South Alabama entered the final nine minutes with a 12-point lead, 60-48, over Georgia State. However, the Panthers stayed close by hitting 15 three-pointers. The Jaguars’ JJ Wheat made both free throws with 20.8 seconds left, but Georgia State’s Malachi Brown sank his seventh three-pointer of the night to cut the lead to 68-67 with 15.3 seconds remaining.

Wheat was fouled again at the 12.9 mark, but this time he missed the front end of the 1-and-1. However, the senior guard quickly stole the ball, leading to a foul on teammate Randy Brady with 5.2 seconds left. Brady made his first free throw to go up by two, but missed the second. Georgia State then attempted a last-second three-pointer, but South Alabama’s Adam Olsen contested the shot perfectly, causing Jelani Hamilton’s attempt to clank off the front of the rim at the buzzer.

“AO (Olsen) gave the perfect contest that we teach,” Riley said. “He jumped at his peak as high as he could, with two hands vertically, without leaning into foul and he got up there high enough to make it come off short.

“And without that contest, [Hamilton] makes it. … AO max-contested that perfectly and he made him miss, but it was online. I thought it might be going in, but thank goodness AO contested like that and we were able to get out of there.”

Key Performances and Game Highlights

Chaze Harris led the Jaguars with 15 points, along with six assists and four rebounds. Jayden Cooper added 11 points, while Olsen contributed 10 points and a season-high 11 rebounds.

“Yeah, it’s just a part of my game that I need to expand on,” said Olsen, the Jaguars’ second-leading scorer at 16.5 points per game. “You can’t just be a scorer, can’t just be a shooter. I have to do stuff on the other end. So I’m really working on my conditioning, being able to play the amount of minutes I do and affect the game in other ways, like getting rebounds.”

Brown led all scorers with 21 points, all coming from three-pointers, and also recorded nine rebounds and four assists. Hamilton added 12 points, including three three-pointers, while Trey Scott scored 10.

Georgia State outrebounded South Alabama 37-33, including 16 offensive rebounds. However, the Jaguars outscored the Panthers 50-12 in the paint.

“That’s a lot — 50 in the paint,” Riley said. “That’s just pounding, pounding in the paint. We did a nice job of finishing plays. And only turned it over five times, so it helped us even out enough of the offensive rebounds, the 3s, and they only made six 2s, which is a good number.”

Looking Ahead

South Alabama will now head on the road to face App State, which is also half a game out of first place. The Mountaineers are 15-9 overall and 8-4 in the Sun Belt, but trail the Jaguars by percentage points in the league standings.

The tip-off for South Alabama at App State is set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, with live-streaming via ESPN+.