MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's basketball team rallied from 11 points down in the second half to take the lead but a key 3-pointer with 37.2 seconds left was enough to give Georgia State a 69-66 win Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.

South Alabama (9-9, 2-3 Sun Belt) took the lead in the second half for the first time with 1:39 left on a jumper from Josh Ajayi. Kane Williams made two free throws after a pair of offensive rebounds on Georgia State's (14-4, 5-0) next possession, then after a USA turnover, Jeff Thomas hit a corner '3' to put the Panthers up 68-64.

Ajayi made 1 of 2 at the line with 30.6 left and Thomas matched that 1.2 seconds later to go back up 69-65. Junior Trhae Mitchell also went 1 for 2 at the stripe to make it a 3-point game, then Malik Benlevi missed both free-throw attempts with 20.8 remaining. A 3-pointer from senior Rodrick Sikes missed the mark but the Jags had one more shot after a Panther turnover with 1.6 left. A 3-pointer from Ajayi was blocked out of bounds, and another attempt from Sikes was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.

D'Marcus Simonds paced GSU with 18 points and 6 assists. Ajayi led all players with 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 11 rebounds.

GAME FACTS
- South Alabama grabbed an early eight-point lead, but a 22-6 run by Georgia State made it 25-17 with 7:12 left before halftime
- A layup from sophomore John Pettway at the buzzer trimmed USA's deficit down to 35-29 at halftime
- Nine unanswered points by the Panthers gave them their largest lead of the contest, 45-34, early in the second half
- The Jaguars answered with nine straight points of their own – four from Ajayi – to get the margin back down to two
- Once GSU kicked its lead back up to eight with 9:42 to play, Ajayi came back with three straight layups for a two-point deficit again
- A 3-point play from Simonds with 4:34 left preceded a 9-2 burst by the Jags, capped off with Ajayi's bucket with 1:39 to put South Alabama ahead by one; Williams' free throws 30 seconds later gave Georgia State the lead for good
- Graduate Kory Holden dished out a game-high 7 assists against no turnovers, and Ajayi added three blocks

NOTES
- South Alabama leads the series 15-14 overall but trails 9-2 since Georgia State rejoined the conference in 2013
- Thursday is the fourth time in the last six games in the series that have been decided by three points or fewer
- Ajayi moved into South Alabama's top 20 in career rebounds and is currently 18th with 512; he also has 984 career points, leaving him 16 shy of becoming the 16th player in school history to have 1,000 points
- Ajayi's double-double is his sixth of the season and 15th of his career; his career total is 10th in school history
- Ajayi has recorded a double-double in his last two games vs. Georgia State, averaging 20.0 points and 10.5 boards
- The team leading at halftime in USA's games this season is 16-2
- South Alabama shot 8 for 19 (42.1%) from the free-throw line, marking the second time this season the team has converted less than 50 percent at the stripe
- Ajayi hit the 20-point mark for the fourth time this year and has scored in double-digits in each of the last 13 games, the longest active streak on the team
- Mitchell blocked two shots, giving him 109 in his career, sixth-best total in USA history and two away from fifth
- All five of Georgia State's conference games have been decided by five points or less
- Simonds is averaging 21.8 points against South Alabama in his career; tonight was his first sub-20 point game

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "Hats off to Georgia State. They're the preseason favorite and they're currently in first place in our league for a reason. They know how to win those games. All of their league games have come down to one, two, or three possessions and they know how to win. They have a program that's built to win championships; they've won two of the last five in our league and are in first place right now trying to get their third in six years. Right now, we have a program that is trying to learn how to win. In the last five years, we have not won more than 14 games. We want to sit at the same table as them. We want to be in the same neighborhood as them as quickly as possible. We're going to be there. That's what I told my team after the game. I felt like we had three or four guys who fiercely competed, especially in the last 12 minutes. The rest of our guys didn't. I told our guys that we're going to have a team that fiercely competes, fights, scraps, and does whatever we have to do to win. That's how you become a championship team. As a fan base, you only get to see what we do on Thursdays and Saturdays. You don't get to see how we recruit. You don't get to see how we develop our sit-out guys. You don't get to see how we develop our current guys both mentally and on the court. We're going to build it. We're going to get a seat at their table. I hate that it didn't turn out tonight. I wanted it so badly. The majority of our guys wanted it so badly and so did the fans. I appreciate the fans. Again, I thought their energy helped us and gave us a chance to win, especially in the last 12 minutes of the game. Their energy helped some tired guys— because we're playing a low number— find a way to compete all the way to the final buzzer. We appreciate them and I hope we can get them out Saturday."

On the effort down the stretch: "We're learning to fight, especially at home. They made a couple 3s to push it to eight and I think we cut it to two, then came all the way back and took a one-point lead. We had a one-point lead with 1:15 or 1:20 to go, I think. We had two chances at a loose ball and we just didn't want it badly enough. We have to have five guys out there who will do whatever they have to do to get it; it doesn't matter what. We're not there yet; we don't have five guys who are willing to do that right now. We will. I really feel like if we had gotten that ball we would've had a heck of a chance. The way Josh Ajayi was scoring inside and the way we were taking advantage when they doubled him inside their zone and we were spreading it out and creating some scrambles, I just felt like we could have gotten that one ball. The game doesn't come down to one possession; I don't want to make it sound like that. We were 8 of 19 from the free throw line. If you make some of those, you're in better shape. We got a bench technical; one of the guys at the end of our bench got a technical. I don't know if they made both of those free throws or not. We missed some layups. It's not about one possession, but I do feel like that was a game-defining possession. If we come up with that, they're in a situation where we take the clock down and we're inside 40 seconds. Score or not, we're still one stop away from probably winning it."

On Rodrick Sikes' look coming out of the last timeout: "That's exactly what we wanted. He makes those tough runaway shots. I knew it would be hard in their zone. Their zone alignment changes based on your alignment. I felt like if we could get it over there and get Trhae Mitchell in a downhill motion like we did and flip it back we could get a clean look. That's why we brought Sikes from the other corner. I thought it was pretty clean. He got a good look and raised it up and it just didn't go in. I was satisfied with their execution on it. You're never 100 percent satisfied unless it goes in, but I thought our guys did a good job coming out of the timeout of getting what we wanted."

On Ajayi's performance: "That was the best he's competed maybe all year long. We went to him in the middle of that zone. We felt like that was a soft spot. We wanted to in the first half, but he got in foul trouble. I think we could've scored more in the first half. We wanted to get it inside. We liked our one-on-one matchup. If you can get it into the middle of the zone with Ajayi, he's going to have one-on-one. If they double, he's a great passer; he can spread it around and create scrambles and open shots. That was certainly a big part of our game plan. He responded. He was 24-and-11 with three blocks. I thought he played tremendously. I was really proud of him. I told him that after the game."

UP NEXT
South Alabama takes on Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.

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