Georgia back on winning end in return to Athens against Winthrop

Georgia Basketball is back on the winning end. After going 0-2 in the Bahamas last week against tough competition (Miami, Providence), the Bulldogs beat Winthrop 78-69 Friday evening in Athens to move to .500 on the season.

Noah Thomasson hit the 20-point mark for the second time this season after he had 21 in a win over Wake Forest. His 24 points on Friday put him in double-figures for the third straight outing as one of three Bulldogs to top 10 points.

The first half saw a bit of a back and forth affair. Georgia jumped out to a nine-point advantage in the first six minutes with an 11-0 run that featured a pair of 3-pointers including a 4-point play from Jabri Abdur-Rahim before eventually giving way back to the Eagles with a 10-0 Winthrop run.

Winthrop, out of the Big South, led by four with 8:00 to go in the first half before the Bulldogs turned it back on. By halftime, Georgia was up by seven as Abdur-Rahim added another six points (3 free throws, 3-pointer) and Noah Thomasson hit his second and third 3-pointers of the game. Each finished the first half in double figures with 10 and 12 points respectively.

Georgia took its 7-point advantage at the break and quickly extended it to double-figures. The Bulldogs were up 10 less than 3:00 into the second frame and led by as many as 15. However, an 8-0 run that was part of larger 12-2 and 18-7 runs, saw Winthrop’s deficit cut down to four at the 7:42 mark.

In need of a spark, Georgia turned to Justin Hill, who spent a pair of seasons in the same conference as the Eagles at Longwood. The Houston, Texas native hit double-figures for the second half on 3-of-5 shooting including two 3-pointers and a perfect 3-for-3 mark at the free throw stripe. Once Winthrop got to within two scores, Hill poured in five of the next seven points for Georgia.

Down the stretch, Georgia was able to withstand a push from Winthrop thanks to some clutch play by Thomasson, helping close out the win.

The game against Winthrop comes as a bit of a break from the brutal schedule that’s been for the Bulldogs. They were the only power conference team in the country to a) open the season against consecutive power conference opponents and b) play four games against power conference opponents in the first five games. Head coach Mike White said that he and his staff have preached to the players that the competition would pay off, even if the record wasn’t what they wanted.

“We communicate with our guys and our guys know that. We talked about our schedule in these past couple of months during the preseason leading into the tip off of the season, ‘We’re going to play a demanding schedule, a pretty unique schedule.’ We told our guys that we wanted to give them an opportunity to play that tough schedule to give them opportunities or postseason potential but also for growth and development. Our guys know that we have plenty of more opportunities,” White said in preparation for the contest against Winthrop. “Offensively, we’ve got to move it better, and sometimes that means that we’ve got to dribble it less, cut more and space better in order to move it better. We’ve got to be willing to trust each other. As we continue to grow together offensively. Offensive and defensive rebounding is a big factor for us. A big topic of conversation the last couple days. That’s something I think that has got to improve for us to be more competitive in our league this year.”

The Bulldogs are back in action this week, and once again it’s quality competition. They’ll travel to Tallahassee for the first-ever ACC/SEC Challenge to take on Florida State on Wednesday. Tip time is set for 9:15 p.m. ET on the ACC Network. The Seminoles are 4-1 on the season, losing to Florida by 21 but bouncing back with a win over a ranked Colorado squad to win the Sunshine Slam on Tuesday.