Micheaux shines in thrilling spirit week games

         Despite splitting two home games last week, Georgia State (17-9, 9-6 CAA), with plenty of help from Josh Micheaux, showed a mental toughness that has defined their season.

        Micheaux was in rare form last week as he turned in dominating performances in both the 61- 59 over Northeastern and the 80-77 over time loss to Delaware.

       "I'm really proud of (Micheaux)," Coach Ron Hunter said. "I have been hard on this guy from day one and he is playing the best basketball of his life. I've been on this guy. A lot of guys would have buckled but he has some toughness."

In Wednesday night's contest against the Huskies, Micheaux took care of the dirty work, pulling in seven of Georgia State's 12 offensive rebounds. He also added 13 points while shooting 6-10 from the field.

       If you were to take a quick glance at the final box score of Saturday's game against Delaware, you might find it hard to believe that Micheaux had an off game. But early shooting troubles, 1-5 shooting from the field including an air ball, led to a visible drop in Micheaux's confidence.  However, a trip to the locker room and a some goading from the coaching staff was enough to ignite 6-foot-6 senior.

"I really challenged him at half time," Hunter said. "Micheaux's game is based on toughness. So we kind of challenged him. We said, ‘you're our tough guy and you just got out-toughed. The more I kept saying it—you could see it in his eyes—he did not like that."

      Micheaux responded by having one of the best second-half performances the Panthers have seen all year, scoring 20 of his 26 points before fouling out with 32 seconds left in regulation.

Micheaux's 26 points is the highest of any Panther all season.

The team followed Micheaux's lead by scoring 17 straight points early in the second half after being down 39-27 entering the break.

       "That second half was probably the best half we've played all year," Hunter said.

Saturday's game was dictated by fouls as Micheaux, Eric Buckner and Tony Kimbro all fouled and James Vincent and James Fields both had 4 fouls. Delaware's Khalid Lewis also fouled out while Devon Saddler and Jamelle Hagins also had four fouls.

       Georgia State's 27 fouls is the most they have had all season. Coach Ron Hunter seemed frustrated with some of the calls.

"I've been fortunate because I was in a league before where we were one of the top teams and I used to get all of those calls. I'm not getting those calls now because I'm the new guy on the block and the program is kind of coming up," Hunter said. "Yeah it's frustrating but what are you going to do about it?"

       The Panthers will face James Madison tonight on the road before returning to the Sports Arena Saturday to host a Sears Bracketbusters game against UTSA. Georgia State's final home game is set for Wed. Feb. 22 against Old Dominion. This game could have major CAA tournament implications as Georgia State looks to wrestle the fourth seed in the conference  away from the Monarchs.