Georgia St. tops UL-Lafayette 80-77 on game-winner

Feb 22, 2014, 11:18 pm

ATLANTA -- Manny Atkins hit a 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left to give Georgia State its 17th win in its last 18 games, an 80-77 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday night.

Louisiana-Lafayette trailed 77-68 with 1:45 to play but scored nine straight points to tie the game 77-77 on a free throw by Elfrid Payton with 30 seconds left.

Georgia State (20-7, 13-1 Sun Belt Conference) then rebounded a missed free throw by Payton and ran the clock down before Atkins hit the game-winner.

Louisiana-Lafayette (18-10, 9-6) scored the game's first nine points and led 41-32 early in the second half but Georgia State then scored 21 straight points to take a 53-41 lead.

Ryan Harrow led Georgia State with 18 points and Devonta White added 17 as the Panthers hit 8 of 17 from 3-point range and snapped Louisiana-Lafayette's six-game winning streak.

Shawn Long had 22 points for Louisiana-Lafayette.