Simonds dunks his way to 29 points, Georgia St. wins 81-75

Jan 26, 2018, 03:27 am

ATLANTA -- D'Marcus Simonds slammed home his seventh dunk of the night with just under a minute to play as Georgia State held off UT Arlington 81-75 for its sixth straight Sun Belt Conference win on Thursday night.

Georgia State (15-6, 6-2) opened conference play by losing to South Alabama and Troy before starting its current win streak. The Panthers are off to their second-best start in program history.

Simonds was 13 of 27 from the floor to total 29 points while grabbing 10 rebounds with five assists, five steals and two blocked shots.

Malik Benlevi added 14 points, Jeff Thomas had 13 and Jordan Session chipped in 12 with 13 rebounds for Georgia State.

UTA held a 30-28 halftime advantage and quickly stretched that to 39-32 before the Panthers charged back to take a 50-49 lead with 9:36 remaining in the game. Simonds slammed his fourth dunk of the night for a 56-53 lead with 8:00 left. Benlevi drilled a 3 and Session followed with a layup to stretch the lead to 64-56.

Kevin Hervey led UTA (13-9, 4-5) with 22 points and 13 rebounds.