Conley lifts Texas St. over Georgia St. in Sun Belt tourney

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Kavin Gilder-Tilbury hit four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points, and Bobby Conley buried a 3 with 2.5 seconds left to lift seventh-seeded Texas State over No. 6 seed Georgia State 63-61 Thursday night in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

Texas State (15-15) faces No. 3 seed UT Arlington (22-9) in the quarterfinals Friday night.

After Gilder-Tilbury hit a 3 to give the Bobcats a one-point lead, Jeff Thomas made a layup that put Georgia State up 61-60 with 11.2 seconds left. Conley, off a dribble-hand off from Ojai Black, answered with a deep 3-pointer from the left wing to win it.

Georgia State (16-14), the defending tournament champion, led by 13 at halftime.

Texas State took its first lead since the opening minutes on back-to-back layups by Emani Gant with 4:47 left.

Gant finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Maljhum McCrea, who came in with 61 total points this season, scored 10 on 4-of-6 shooting.

Jeremy Hollowell and Thomas led Georgia State with 16 points apiece.