National Basketball Association
Louisiana-Lafayette 82, Georgia St 81
When: 1:00 PM ET, Sunday, March 16, 2014
Where: Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
Officials:
# Tim Gattis, # Garry Maxwell, # Ray Natalli
Attendance:
N/A
By SportsDirect Inc.
Louisiana-Lafayette 82, Georgia State 81 (OT): Elfrid Payton scored six of his 19 points in overtime as the third-seeded Ragin' Cajuns used a remarkable rally in regulation to surge to the Sun Belt Conference tournament title in New Orleans and their first NCAA tournament berth since 2005.
Xavian Rimmer led Louisiana-Lafayette (23-11) with 27 points and Bryant Mbamalu had 13, including a layup with 1.4 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. Shawn Long collected 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Ragin' Cajuns, who ended the second half on a 17-6 run.
Ryan Harrow scored a career-high 37 points to lead the No. 1 seed Panthers (25-8), who had won 22 of their previous 23 games. R.J. Hunter contributed 17 points and Manny Atkins had 12 as Georgia State fell shy of its first tournament bid since 2001.
Hunter's 3-pointer early in overtime put the Panthers up three before Payton had a layup, a steal, two free throws and a basket to give his team an 80-77 lead with 44 seconds left. Harrow had two free throws and a layup around Rimmer's two foul shots to make it 82-81 before missing a potential game-winning jumper in the closing seconds.
Harrow scored 10 points in a 12-2 surge that gave Georgia State a 66-55 lead with just over five minutes left, but two 3-pointers by Rimmer, another by Payton and Long's dunk pulled Louisiana-Lafayette within 72-68 with less than two minutes to go. A Panthers turnover led to a Payton hoop with 47 seconds left and a miss by Harrow preceded Mbamalu's basket on a feed from Long to force overtime.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Ragin' Cajuns led by as many as eight in the first half before settling for a 35-34 halftime advantage. ... Georgia State was 20-of-21 from the line, compared to 7-of-14 for Louisiana-Lafayette. ... The Ragin' Cajuns had a 46-30 advantage on the glass.
Top Game Performances
| Louisiana-Lafayette |
|
Georgia St |
|
Xavian Rimmer 27 |
Scoring |
Ryan Harrow 37 |
|
Elfrid Payton 6 |
Assists |
R.J. Hunter 3 |
|
Shawn Long 14 |
Rebounds |
Curtis Washington 8 |
|
Xavian Rimmer 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Ryan Harrow 11 |
|
Kevin Brown 1 |
Steals |
R.J. Hunter 4 |
|
Shawn Long 1 |
Blocks |
Curtis Washington 4 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Louisiana-Lafayette
|
82 |
42.7 |
11-26 |
7-14 |
15 |
44 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
| Georgia St
|
81 |
48.3 |
5-19 |
20-21 |
8 |
30 |
7 |
5 |
7 |