Ragin' Cajuns Cool Off Red Hot Georgia State

Ragin’ Cajuns Cool Off Red Hot Georgia State

Caleb Williams February 3, 2026 3 minutes read

Georgia State’s win streak comes to an end after being unable to shake their slow start against Louisiana, falling to the Ragin’ Cajuns 82-72 on Thursday night. After four lead changes in the opening minutes, the Ragin’ Cajuns shooting came to life en-route to their 10-point victory, putting them back into the mix for favorable seeding in the Sun Belt Tournament.

Both teams went bucket-for-bucket in the opening minutes of the half and with Georgia State crawling back to retake the lead twice, it seemed the game was shaping up to be an offensive slugfest.

Malachi for 3️⃣!#LightItBlue | #MORE pic.twitter.com/rN4WHhuvbZ

— GSU Men’s Basketball (@GSU_MBasketball) January 30, 2026

Those hopes came to an end after the fourth lead change when Louisiana’s shooters came to life and overwhelmed Georgia State’s defense the rest of the first half, outscoring the Panthers 35-12 heading into halftime. The hot hands of sophomore guard De’vion Lavergne sealed Georgia State’s fate with a 23-point outing.

Malachi for 3️⃣!#LightItBlue | #MORE pic.twitter.com/rN4WHhuvbZ

— GSU Men’s Basketball (@GSU_MBasketball) January 30, 2026

Georgia State made a push in the final six minutes of the game, closing their deficit to as little as five points, but couldn’t get any closer than that as the Cajuns pulled away once more to secure their win.

Junior guard Malachi Brown put the team on his back, putting up 25 points and four rebounds. Brown also put up eight three-point shots and converted on four of them, shooting to the tune of 50% to lead the team in that metric.

The Panthers converted 33 of their 35 awarded free throws, and while they were two away from perfection, the 33 makes are the most made single-game free throws in school history. The new record beats out the one they set in 2014 against the Hilltoppers, where Georgia State went a perfect 22-for-22.

The Achilles heal for Georgia State was shooting poorly from the floor, the team combined for a 31% from the field and an even lower 21% from the three-point line. Despite winning the turnover battle, the lack of offense made things turn for the worse rapidly for the Panthers.

Star guard Jelani Hamilton had a very quiet offensive night despite scoring 14-points, he went 2-15 from the field and 0-6 from three-point range. Hamilton shot a perfect 11-11 from the free throw line remains in the top-15 for free throw percentage in all of NCAA Division 1 basketball, currently sitting at 11th.

Louisiana moves to 6-16 overall and sits at 4-6 in the conference, they’ll stick around at home to face another team from the Peach State when Georgia Southern comes to town on Saturday. Georgia State drops to 9-13 and holds a 6-4 conference record, they’ll head east to Mobile, Alabama where a showdown with the South Alabama Jaguars awaits on Saturday.