Asa Newell has record night as Georgia Basketball wins season opener

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Basketball opened its exciting 2024-25 campaign with a win Monday night over Tennessee Tech, defeating the Golden Eagles 83-78.

UGA led for the majority of the first half thanks to the effort of five-star freshman Asa Newell and Mount St. Mary’s transfer Dakota Leffew early on. Newell scored 10 of Georgia’s first 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting while Leffew came off the bench with Silas Demary in early foul trouble. His 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs a 14-11 lead nearly six minutes in after Tennessee Tech had tied things at 11 with its third 3-pointer. From there, the Bulldogs jumped out to a lead as large as seven, never quite being able to extend it to double digits.

Tennessee Tech did manage to eventually take a lead thanks to a stretch of 3:45 that saw just three baskets for Georgia to seven scores by the Golden Eagles. However, the Tennessee Tech lead was never larger than two, and the Bulldogs were able to go into the locker room ahead 42-38 with a 9-0 run that featured baskets by Newell, Somto Cyril and Leffew playing a large part.

A 5-0 run coming out of the break gave Tennessee Tech the lead, but after a dunk by Newell just 16 seconds later, it was all Dawgs. Clemson transfer RJ Godfrey gave Georgia a double-double with six points and eight rebounds coming after the half. Newell also recorded a double-double, ending 26 points and 11 rebounds. His scoring total tied that of Dominique Wilkins for the program’s most in a freshman debut.

Georgia is back in action on Sunday against Texas Southern in the first game of the Peach State Classic, a multi-team event that also features North Florida and Georgia Tech. UGA will play each of the three teams over the course of six days. Tip time on Sunday is set for 3:30 p.m. ET, streaming on SEC Network+.

Thombs’ Takeaways

*** Five-star freshman Asa Newell came out scoring 10 of Georgia’s first 18 points, doing so on 5-of-7 shooting. Both of his misses were on what seemed like good looks and in the flow of UGA’s offense, but it did feel like he was trying to make a statement in his collegiate debut. That being said, that’s exactly what Newell ended up doing with a double-double. Newell’s 26 points tied Dominique Wilkins for the program’s most in a freshman debut. His 11 rebounds was also a team-high.

*** Dakota Leffew was the first player off the bench for Georgia, taking the place of Silas Demary after two early fouls. After missing the team’s most recent exhibition against UCF, and the open practice for media, Monday was his first action of Leffew we got to see. He came in early and made his presence felt – running the point, even with Tyrin Lawrence on the floor alongside him I might add – with a nice drive to the rim and a 3-pointer. That trend continued with Leffew making all four of Georgia’s 3-pointers in the win and finishing with 18 points on the night.

*** When Newell went to the bench, the scoring definitely dropped off – especially with it obvious that it wasn’t going to be Georgia’s night from 3-point range. RJ Godfrey did managed to help maintain the lead with a couple of back-to-the-basket, traditional-post-man buckets. I’m a big fan of his offensive game, and that was on display even more in the second half. He scored six of eight points for the Bulldogs to bring on Tennessee Tech’s final timeout with 7:00 remaining. During that stretch he had an offensive rebound that led to a layup and a fastbreak dunk that gave him a double-double, first of his career. It felt kind of quiet, but if UGA is getting quiet double-doubles, that’s a great thing.

*** Tennessee Tech took a couple of leads around the first-half under-4, and each time, Georgia’s response was to go to Newell. that’s telling of what the Bulldogs think of the freshman already. And speaking of freshmen, it was Somto Cyril that gave UGA the lead after Newell tied it on the second of the aforementioned makes. Interior play is very much improved which was big in the first half with a lackluster start from deep (at the time, Georgia was just 1-of-10 from deep).

*** We mentioned Demary earlier with his two early fouls that led to Leffew entering off the bench, and it definitely wasn’t his night. He was held without any points in the first half and didn’t score until 11:11 remained. At that point, he had picked up two more fouls and was playing with four – nearly getting a fifth on what was reviewed for a potential flagrant foul. Georgia’s guards were not all that impressive outside of Leffew, and Demary’s struggles felt chief among those.

Quotes of Note

Mike White: I love where we’re at in terms of culture and connection and chemistry. But tonight, we struggled. How we respond to our struggles tonight will be telling moving forward in terms of how connected we really are. It’s easy to be connected when you’re up 30. It’s easy to be connected when you haven’t played an exhibition and haven’t played scoring practice. We’ve got a bunch of really, really good guys too. We’re off tomorrow. When we come back Wednesday, we’ll learn a lot about who we are in terms of our approach to practice. I’ll be shocked if we don’t have a really good one. This is probably the best practice team I’ve coached. They love to compete, and these guys, they work. I’m ready to get back to work myself.

Asa Newell: We’ve just got to be better, to be honest. We got exposed out there. I’m going to keep it real. We just got to have a great day on Wednesday and prepare for Sunday. Can’t take the win for granted though. We’re 1-0 and just continue on our path.

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