Dawgs take down Catamounts behind pair of double-doubles and nearly a third

After a tough loss to George Mason just two nights before, the Georgia Bulldogs’ basketball team bounced back in a big way Monday night, defeating Western Carolina by a score of 85-79. Two Georgia players (Aaron Cook and Braelen Bridges) finished the night with double-doubles, and Dalen Ridgnal was just one rebound away from achieving one as well.

While there are plenty of positive takeaways to make from the game, let’s first take a look at the bad. Western Carolina’s McCray had his way with the Bulldogs, finishing the contest with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, which was good enough to lead his team in every statistical category. Fortunately for the Dawgs, McCray fouled out late into the game.

Turnovers were not as big of a problem for Georgia tonight, as the Bulldogs finished the game with only 9. However, forcing turnovers became a problem for the Dawgs tonight, only managing to take the ball away from the Catamounts 6 times.

As a super senior, Aaron Cook has played in a lot of college basketball games, but he felt that there was something different about Monday night’s game at Stegeman.

“It was crazy. I don’t think, in all my years of college basketball, that I’ve ever played a team that ran so fast in transition and shot so many threes,” Cook said. “Every time we made a basket, it didn’t even matter. They kept attacking. I really respect that team for the effort that they gave tonight and just how they played. They played a really good game. They didn’t back down from a challenge. They made us better tonight. It was a crazy game, but we got the W.”

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Dawgs finished strong, making their last eight attempts to close the doors on the Catamounts. In the postgame press conference, Tom Crean spoke about the adjustments they made in the final stretch.

“I think where we put Noah (Baumann) in the zone. I think the fact that Braelen (Bridges) could finish the game for us was big. I think Kario (Oquendo) was attacking the rim and that made the threes better. I just think the way we passed the ball,” Crean said. “Couple firsts tonight. I’m not sure I’ve coached against a team that took 46 threes. It’s got to be a low on turnovers for us. It might be the first time we’ve had 20 assists. I’m really not certain, but the ball was really moving well and that’s what we have to have. I don’t know if it was an adjustment as much. We moved some people around in the zone, so that was adjusted. We started working on that yesterday, but I think the fact that the ball was moving inside out. We had 48 paint touches, which was the high for us and eventually we want to get into the mid 50s. 48 was high. 43 was our high previously on Saturday night against George Mason. When that ball is touching the paint it really doesn’t matter what you’re running. It’s getting into the paint, it’s getting out for threes, or it’s getting into a drop-off situation that is good. It wasn’t an adjustment as much as it was playing cleaner and playing the way we practiced to play.”

The Dawgs shot 34.6% from the 3-point line and 75% from the free-throw line. On the contrary, the Catamounts only made 45% of their foul shots, a surprisingly low number.

Junior Dalen Ridgnal played a crucial role in Monday’s game, filling in for the spot where Georgia typically utilized Jailyn Ingram. The forward finished the game with 10 points and 9 rebounds on only 6 shot attempts. In Ingram’s absence, Ridgnal has confidence in himself moving forward.

“I think I can have a really big impact rebounding, shooting threes and passing the ball,” he said. “I feel like I can really be big for us down the stretch against other teams that we play.”

Georgia will be back in action this Wednesday as they take on East Tennessee State in Stegeman Coliseum at 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+. With a win, the Bulldogs would improve to .500 on the season at 6-6. Either way, there are just two games remaining in non-conference play: East Tennessee State and Gardner Webb (29th). SEC play begins January 4th against Texas A&M.