Staff photo by Jake Daniels
UTC's Keegan Bell, No. 3, tries to keep the ball away from Montreat's Matt Rushing, No. 24, on Wednesday night. The first two games of the Dr. Pepper Classic -- Georgia State vs. Texas A&M Corpus Christie, and UTC vs. Montreat -- were held at McKenzie Arena on Wednesday.Georgia State guard Dante Curry led the Panthers to a 72-42 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi by scoring 18 points, all from the 3-point line.
The Panthers (5-5) advanced to the Dr Pepper Classic championship game with the win and will face the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga beginning at 7 p.m. in McKenzie Arena.
"Dante shot the ball well and he hit big shots early," GSU coach Rod Barnes said. "That opened up things and we were able to get some easy baskets. We'd been looking for him to do that."
Devonte White added 14 points for GSU which shot 52.8 percent from the field. Demond Watt scored nine points to lead the Islanders who shot 14-of-41 from the floor and 1-of-13 from the 3-point line.
The Islanders began the game 0-for-5 from the field with six turnovers through the first eight minutes which put them behind 20-2.
GSU limited the Islanders to 7-of-21 from the floor in the first half while shooting 48.3 percent itself to take a 37-19 lead into halftime. The Panthers maintained a lead of about 20 points and led by as many as 31 in the second half.
All but two of GSU's previous games were determined by 10 points or less. The exceptions were wins over Utah Valley and Florida A&M.
"I was nervous the whole way," Barnes said. "I'd seen leads evaporate, and I didn't want our lead to go away."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484.