Georgia outlasts Mercer in 3 Overtimes
By Keith Holt
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.
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During the third overtime the Bulldogs were able to get back in control of the game. Charles Mann’s fifth 3-pointer of the game, with 3:42 in the third overtime, gave UGA their biggest lead (78-72) of the OT periods to that point and the Dawgs never looked back.
Georgia had five players score in double figures, led by Charles Mann’s 22 points. Forward Marcus Thornton and Kenny Gaines each had double-doubles in points and rebounds, and Georgia finished with a 57-40 edge against the Bears on the glass.
Mercer got huge game off the bench players Strawberry and Lewis who had 21 and 16 respectively. The Bulldogs held Mercer star Ike Nwamu in check as he only had eight points on 2-for-14 shooting from the field.
Next up for University of Georgia is a road game in Manhattan, KS against the Kansas State Wildcats on December 31st.