Georgia Bulldogs offense collapses in 59-54 loss to Vanderbilt Commodores

Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

In the wake of “Snowmageddon” rolling through the southeast the day before, the Georgia Bulldogs played the Vanderbilt Commodores on Wednesday night in Athens. The game was almost cancelled due to the weather, since Vandy had to be rerouted from flying into Athens. Instead, the Commodores flew into South Carolina, and stayed there until the roads cleared up for them to take a bus to Stegeman Coliseum. Even though it would have been simpler for them to take the bus to start with, Vanderbilt got off that bus shooting well.

Georgia didn’t.

The first half was mired in bad shot selection by UGA, which seems to be a developing theme with this set of Dawgs. Slow starts really hurt a team if they can’t rebound, but the Bulldogs actually tied Vandy on the boards with 19 at the break. Frankly, with a team physical enough to rebound well, they should be physical enough to take it to the rim on the dribble.

Instead, several Georgia players decided to launch ill-planned 3-point shots, but only managed 1-12 from beyond the arc in the first half. That’s about 8% for you math majors out there. For you non-math majors, just know that it stinks. Despite that awful shooting performance, the Dawgs got to the charity stripe enough to keep the score close at the half, down 27-21.

In order to get back into the game, Georgia needed to cut down on the jump shots and take the ball into the lane in the second half. The Dawgs did just that at the outset of the half with Charles Mann leading the charge. Within 4 minutes, UGA had tied the game at 28, and the momentum seemed to turn. However, Georgia was so horrible shooting the ball from the outside that nothing else mattered. The Dawgs shot 15-55 (27%) from the floor, disappointing fans in a game that could have been a win for Georgia if they shot even 35%.

Next up, Georgia heads to Auburn to play a Tigers team that has yet to win an SEC game. Hopefully, the Dawgs will add to the Tigers woes on Saturday with a bounce-back victory.