Georgia St. Panthers vs Houston Cougars Match Player Stats On Mar 22, 2019

Guard Corey Davis Jr. scored 15 of his game-high 26 points in the first half, and No. 3 Houston suffocated Georgia State's normally lethal perimeter shooting en route to an 84-55 victory in the first round of the Midwest Region on Friday night in Tulsa, Okla.

Houston (32-3) will face No. 11 Ohio State in the second round on Sunday, after the Buckeyes hung on to upset No. 6 Iowa State late Friday evening.

Houston led 40-31 at the half, and Davis then scored eight consecutive Cougars points in the first 2:50 of the second half to extend the edge to 50-33.

Davis did virtually all of his damage from long range. Seventeen of his first 20 shots were 3-pointers, and he made seven of those. Houston used a 21-3 run to lead by as many as 29 points, 73-44, with 6:01 left.

The Cougars put three other players in double figures: Fabian White Jr. with 14, Breaon Brady with 13 and Dejon Jarreau with 10. White grabbed 11 rebounds.

No. 14 Georgia State had made an average of 9.5 3-pointers per game this season, but the Panthers went just 6 of 23 (26.1 percent) from long distance against Houston.

Houston entered the game as the nation's leader in field-goal percentage defense, and the Cougars held Georgia State (24-10) to 18-of-60 shooting (30 percent).

The Cougars made six of their first eight shots to vault to a 15-3 lead 4 1/2 minutes into the game. Davis converted a four-point play by making his first 3-pointer of the game from the left wing despite heavy contact and then adding the free throw, and Brady hit back-to-back shots in the paint.

Davis' second 3-pointer of the game extended the lead to 18-5. The Panthers missed eight of their first nine shots in the first 6:44. Davis finished the first half with a team-high 15 points, hitting 4 of 9 from 3-point range.

The Cougars, one of the country's best rebounding teams, outrebounded Georgia State 24-13 in the first half and 51-27 overall.

D'Marcus Simonds kept Georgia State within striking distance with 11 first-half points. Simonds finished with a team-high 18.

--Field Level Media