Georgia outlasts Mercer in 3 Overtimes

The Georgia Bulldogs outlasted the Mercer Bears in a triple overtime game at Stegeman Coliseum 86-77. With the win, Georgia improves to 7-3 on the season and has won four straight ball games.

The Bulldogs got off to strong start and led the game 32-23 at halftime. Georgia used a 25-12 rebounding advantage against the Bears and nine points from guard J.J. Frazier to power them to their advantage at the intermission. Mercer failed to score a field goal in the final 5:16 of the first half of the contest.

Mercer was able to get back into the game with an 8-0 run early in the second half to close the gap 37-33. The Bears remained competitive throughout the second half with Georgia and were able to keep the game close by forcing the Dawgs to 16 turnovers. Georgia didn’t help its cause by missing 16 free throws during the course of the game.

The game was forced to overtime by freshman guard Jordan Strawberry’s 3-pointer at the end of regulation. The Bears and Bulldogs exchanged leads during the first extra session, but neither could hit their last shot and the end game went into a second OT with a 62-62 tie.

Guard Jestin Lewis hit his fifth 3-pointer for the Bears to take a 72-69 lead with 49.3 seconds left in the second overtime. That proved to not be enough for Mercer, as Georgia got a free throw from Nemanja Djurisic and Kenny Gaines layup with five seconds left to force a third session after regulation with game tied 72-72.