Georgia Bulldogs respond with win over Vols, 81-72
By John Buhler
The Georgia Bulldogs put together a strong second half against the Tennessee Volunteers Wednesday night at home en route to an important SEC win, 81-72.
It wasn’t looking all that great in the first half, as the Georgia Bulldogs trailed the Tennessee Volunteers, 35-28 at home at halftime, but the Dawgs put together a great second half to defeat the Vols, 81-72, for a much-needed SEC win Wednesday night.
The Georgia Bulldogs were coming off a heartbreaking loss Saturday night to the Ole Miss Rebels, 72-71 on a last-second shot by SEC standout guard Stefan Moody. UGA carried over much of their offensive struggles from Oxford Saturday into the first half on Wednesday night’s game, as the Dawgs couldn’t buy a bucket in the pain early on.
The Dawgs couldn’t stop turning the basketball over and UGA was looking like they were going to drop another SEC game to fall to 1-3 in the conference. Sitting in the 60s in the RPI and needing a win desperately to stay in the NCAA conversation, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mark Fox got fired up by ripping his jacket off, yelling at the officials, doing nearly anything the get his team amped up for their basketball game.
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Fox’s sideline antics worked, as the Georgia Bulldogs outscored the Tennessee Volunteers, 53-37 in the second half. Georgia’s comeback and eventual takeover of this game came from the strong jump shooting of guards J.J. Frazier and Kenny Gaines. Both starting guards for the Dawgs combined for 51 of Georgia’s 81 points Wednesday night.
Frazier had 28 points on 10-14 shooting, including 4-5 from beyond the arc. He was a perfect 4-4 from the line and had eight rebounds, four assists, and three steals. When J.J. Frazier is feeling it, there isn’t a shot he’s not hitting on the hardwood. Frazier is one of the most electric shooters in the SEC without question.
Gaines was as hot as Frazier on Wednesday, as he had 23 points on 8-12 shooting, including 6-10 from three-point land. Though he ended up fouling out inside of a minute remaining, Kenny Gaines was the perfect backcourt complement to Frazier Wednesday night when point guard Charles Mann had to deal with foul trouble for most of the game. Mann did end up with 10 points and three assists.
UGA won’t continue to win games against decent like Tennessee if they don’t have a shred of an inside presence offensively. Yante Maten and Derek Ogbeide combined to shoot 6-20 from the field as the starting frontcourt, scoring only 13 points.
Next: Georgia Bulldogs host Tennessee Volunteers Wednesday
While it was nice to see Maten and Ogbeide start together in the Georgia frontcourt, they will need to work better together on the inside when the Dawgs take on a strong Texas A&M Aggies team on Saturday. Regardless, this was a game that Mark Fox and the Georgia Bulldogs needed to have to stay in the NCAA Tournament conversation and UGA was able to grind out another SEC victory at home. Go Dawgs!