Ware celebrates birthday in style, leads GSU past Little Rock

ATLANTA, Ga. - It was a very happy birthday for Kevin Ware.

The redshirt-junior scored a career-high 21 points on his 22nd birthday, leading Georgia State to an 82-69 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock Saturday afternoon at the GSU Sports Arena.

Ware, in his first season at the Atlanta school after transferring from Louisville, had perhaps his finest game as a collegiate, and his day began a little sooner than expected.

Starting guard Ryann Green exited a little over a minute into the game when he took an accidental elbow to the mouth and had a tooth displaced. The senior from College Park never returned to the court, but the Panthers (9-4, 2-0 Sun Belt Conference) didn’t miss a beat, thanks to Ware.

The Rockdale High School graduate set or equaled career-bests in several categories, including eight made field goals (in 14 attempts), and a career-high-tying five assists.

“(Ware’s) confidence was really, really high today,” said GSU coach Ron Hunter. “Couldn’t be happier for him.”

“I know I just had to step up,” said Ware, who has his first double-digit scoring game since his previous career-best of 15 points November 26 against Oakland. “I don’t have a lot of celebrating to do, just want wins right now.”

Ryan Harrow led all scorers with 22 points as the Panthers extended their home winning streak to 18 games and defeated Arkansas-Little Rock (5-7, 0-2) for the fourth consecutive time.

GSU’s defense also had a lot to do with that streak continuing. The visiting Trojans went eight minutes without a field goal in the second half, which turned a one-point GSU lead at the 10:39 mark into a 74-55 cushion on R.J. Hunter’s dunk with 2:50 to play. The Panthers had 13 steals with a trio of players, including Ware, grabbing three each.

“As long as we were getting it done defensively, we were fine,” Ware said. “It all starts with our defense.”

“This is a veteran group (and) our defense is going to be pretty good,” said Ron Hunter.

It was an extremely-tight start to the second half, and Arkansas-Little Rock led 48-47 on Ben Dillard’s 3-pointer with 13 minutes left. Harrow answered with a floater in the lane, then Ware assisted on Jalen Brown’s three and GSU held a 52-48 advantage. J.T. Thomas knocked down a 3-pointer to get the Trojans to within 52-51, but they wouldn’t get any closer.

Harrow banked in a runner, then was fouled driving for another basket, and on the play, Arkansas-Little Rock’s Josh Hagins was hit with a technical foul. Hunter and Harrow combined to go 5-of-6 from the free-throw line to put the Panthers up 59-51 with eight minutes to play.

Ware capped his great day with a put back of his own miss and his only 3-pointer of the day (on his only attempt), which preceded Hunter’s dunk on a fast break.

“The last couple weeks (the feeling was) ‘Kevin is going to have one of these coming-out games,’” said Ron Hunter. “If he keeps playing this way I’ll buy him cake.”

Arkansas-Little Rock hit seven of its first 11 shots and went up by as much as five points in the opening half, grabbing a 17-12 cushion on a Dillard 3-pointer at the 12:44 mark. GSU erased that deficit, thanks to Ware, who hit a baseline jumper and Harrow, who took a pass from Hunter and knocked down a three to tie things up at 17-17.

The hosts were up seven in the first after Harrow scored seven quick points, two of which were lay-ins off steals and another when Ware picked up one of his four first-half assists. Then Harrow drained a 3-pointer on an inbounds play and the Panthers took their largest first half lead at 34-27 with 3:13 left.

GSU led 37-32 at the break despite leading scorer Hunter behind held to three points, though the junior finished the day with 14 to pass Devonta White for third on the school’s career scoring list with 1,394 points.

Dillard and James Reid led the visiting Trojans with 14 points each.