Simonds finishes strong as Georgia St. beats Texas St. 54-50

ATLANTA -- D'Marcus Simonds scored eight of his 20 points in the final minute as Georgia State rallied to slip past Texas State 54-50 in a battle for second place in the Sun Belt Conference on Saturday afternoon.

Georgia State (16-6, 7-2) trails only Louisiana in the conference standings.

Simonds outscored Texas State 8-2 in the final 1:25 as he hit a jumper and a layup for a 50-48 lead with 57 seconds left. He then made four straight free throws to cap the scoring and seal the win.

Alex Peacock drilled a trey and Nijal Pearson added a layup to give the Bobcats a 48-44 lead with 5:50 remaining, but Texas State was held to two points the rest of the way.

Jeff Thomas had 14 points with eight rebounds and Jordan Session grabbed 11 boards for Georgia State.

Pearson had 12 points and Immanuel King added nine with 13 rebounds for Texas State (14-9, 7-3).