Georgia completes season sweep of Ole Miss
By Keith Holt
The Georgia Bulldogs pick up a big road win in Oxford, MS tonight taking down Ole Miss by the score of 76-72. The Bulldogs complete the season sweep of Mississippi and improve to 9-6 in SEC play and to 18-9 overall on the season. Mark Fox’s team has won 5 SEC road games this season which is the most for them since 1991.
Both Mississippi and Georgia struggled to hit baskets early on. Both teams combined for 2 for 15 shooting during the first 4 minutes of the game. Georgia was the first of the two teams to shake off the rust and was able to get something going from behind arc. The Bulldogs made 8 three point baskets before halftime which allow them to take a 34-23 lead into the locker room.
The Bulldogs continued with some solid outside shooting early on in the 2nd half to help keep Mississippi at bay. The Rebels were able to chip at Georgia’s lead but could never get ahead of the Bulldogs. Ole Miss got away from the zone defense that was getting them scorched from outside but when they went man to man they felt the wrath of forward Marcus Thornton who was big inside in the 2nd half with 15 points.
Georgia got a great effort from guard Kenny Gaines who not only led the Bulldogs in scoring tonight with 22 points but held down the 5th leading scorer in the SEC in Stefan Moody who was only able to make 5 of 16 shots tonight. The Bulldogs had 4 players to finish the game with double digit scoring efforts. Forward Marcus Thornton had a huge night with a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds for the game.
Ole Miss also had 4 players to score in double figures but most bad shooting efforts. Moody led the team with 19 points but a lot of those came from late free throws. The Rebels were held down to 34% from field and 20% shooting from 3 point range.
Next up for Georgia is a home game against Missouri on February 28th at Stegeman Coliseum as the Bulldogs keep trying to make that push for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.