Georgia State 38, Georgia Southern 36: Kevin Ware scored a game-high 18 points, and R.J. Hunter made two go-ahead free throws with 21.6 seconds left as the Panthers won the Sun Belt championship game in New Orleans.

Hunter finished with nine points on 3-of-15 shooting while Markus Crider added eight points and seven rebounds for Georgia State (24-9), which advances to the NCAA Tournament for the third time and first since 2001. The Panthers did it without second-leading scorer Ryan Harrow, who played only 11.3 seconds due to a lingering hamstring injury.

Trent Wiedeman and Jelani Hewitt each scored eight points to lead Georgia Southern (22-9), which shot 22.9 percent from the field and made only five of 26 attempts from 3-point range. Mike Hughes added seven points and nine rebounds for the Eagles.

Hughes drained a 3-pointer in the middle of the run as Georgia Southern scored seven straight to take a 30-29 lead with 9½ minutes remaining. No one could build more than a two-point lead after that, and Georgia Southern missed two 3-pointers for the lead in the final seconds after Hunter’s two free throws.

Ware scored 11 points in the first half as Georgia State led by as many as seven before settling for a 19-16 edge at intermission with Georgia Southern making only 6-of-25 from the field. The Eagles cut the lead to two before the Panthers answered with six of the next eight - four from Crider - for a 27-21 advantage with 14:28 left.