Georgia Bulldogs escape with road win over Vanderbilt Commodores, 70-67

After an unfortunate 0-2 start to SEC conference play, Mark Fox and the Georgia Bulldogs needed a statement win. On Wednesday night in Nashville, they were able to secure that much-needed victory, outlasting the Vanderbilt Commodores by a final score of 70-67.

The Dawgs came out of the gate flying high, compiling an 11-point early lead on the strength of nine points in the first nine minutes from veteran forward Marcus Thornton. Georgia would hold a nearly equivalent lead for the remainder of the first half, and with solid execution, the team in red and black led by a nine-point margin at the break.

Following halftime, Georgia increased their advantage back to double-digits for a large portion of the 20 minutes, before Vanderbilt finally built a run late in the game. With a 9-0 run in just over two minutes of clock time, the ‘Dores closed the lead to 63-61 with just 30 seconds remaining, but that was fortunately as close as things got. Charles Mann and J.J. Frazier converted four straight free throws to put things out of reach for UGA on the way to the final margin, and that was that.

The aforementioned Marcus Thornton (16 points, 4 rebounds) and guard Kenny Gaines (17 points, 4 rebounds) led the way for the Georgia Bulldogs in this game. However, it was a balanced effort, with six players scoring six points or more, and UGA converted 10 of its 17 (59%) three-point attempts as a team. Defensively, Vanderbilt was held to just 41% from the floor, and that helped the Dawgs to avoid disaster that could have struck from a significant disadvantage on the glass.

With the victory, the Georgia Bulldogs improve to 10-5 on the young season, but the next contest won’t be easy. UGA returns to Athens for Saturday’s game, but their opponent will be the arch rival Florida Gators at 2:00 pm at Stegeman Coliseum. Stay tuned.