Georgia State is one win away from making it to the NCAA Tournament.
The Panthers held off the Georgia Southern Eagles 73-67 in the Sun Belt semifinals to advance to Sunday's final against UT-Arlington.
The Panthers had the ball with 22 seconds left and a fresh shot clock after a kicked ball by the Eagles. But Devin Mitchell apparently was confused. He caught the inbound and immediately shot the three off balance.
Amazingly, it went in.
Williams celebrated and head coach Ron Hunter put his hands up to his head, screaming, "What are you doing?"
It certainly wasn't the play Hunter drew up with the Panthers up by three. They should have eaten the clock and tried to draw the foul. But three is better than two, and as ridiculous as it was, it helped the Panthers win.
"God bless him. We told him we were going to hold it. The kid didn't hear it, and he shoots the shot. If he misses it, I'm taking his scholarship and everything else," Hunter said to ESPN, laughing. "But he made a big shot and we won the game."
Hunter said at his post-game press conference that he told his players that they were going to spread the ball out and they had 20 seconds left. He had everyone repeat the play and time back to him.
"Devin gets in and he thought it was just 1 second on the clock. So I'm going to call my mom-- because my mom wanted me to go into banking-- and so I'm going to call her and tell her, 'Mom you are right.' Because this is stressful man."
Georgia State had a 15-point lead at halftime, but the Eagles fought back. They stepped up defensively, and Georgia State had more than a dozen turnovers in the second half. They got into foul trouble, as well, allowing the Eagles to chip away at their lead. Sun Belt Player of the Year D'Marcus Simonds fouled out of the game with roughly four minutes remaining.
The 3 ball was working well for the Panthers, who shot 43 percent from outside the arc. Isaiah Williams came off the bench and scored a team-high 21 points for the Panthers.
If the Panthers win Sunday, they'll return to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four seasons. The Panthers made it to the Round of 32 that season after upsetting No. 3 Baylor.
