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Georgia guts out 72-65 win over Chattanooga

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•12/21/22•

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Kayla Renie / UGA Sports Communications

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Basketball defeated Chattanooga Wednesday afternoon at Stegeman Coliseum in a game where the Bulldogs trailed the majority of the contest. Kario Oquendo finished with 22 points, maybe none more important than his pair of free throws to put Mike White’s squad on top with 2:58 to go in the game on their way to a 72-65 victory.

Terry Roberts, Braelen Bridges and Jailyn Ingram joined Oquendo in double-figures with 14, 12 and 10 respectively while Chattanooga’s Jamal Johnson led all scorers with 23 points for the Mocs.

“Resilience and mental toughness, a little bit of poise but we need a lot more poise,” Georgia head coach Mike White said after the game. “Really proud of the fight down the stretch. The confidence and swagger offensively down the stretch of Kario Oquendo, I thought he was fantastic … Lot of things that we didn’t do very well, but that said, Chattanooga is very good. I think they’ve got a really good chance to play in the NCAA Tournament in my opinion … They all shoot it, and I didn’t realize how well they passed it. It was fun to watch if you’re a fan, not so much if you’re playing against them.”

Chattanooga jumped out to an early lead with five of its first six baskets coming on 3-pointers. The Mocs lead at two different points by eight in the first half, 14-6 just over four minutes in and once again with 2:20 left before the break – that time 32-24. However, Georgia was able to cut into the deficit both times, the first down to one and the second down to three before heading into the locker room.

Coming out in the second half, Georgia’s emphasis was to get Chattanooga off the line. The Mocs made nine shots from deep on 21 attempts (42.9%) before being held to just five-of-18 (27.8%) after the half. While Chattanooga was able to get its lead back to eight with 13:39 to go in the game, the Bulldogs got the deficit down to one once again before eventually tying the game with 9:23 as a part of a 5-0 run. An 8-0 run helped Georgia take the lead eventually, before being tied once again. Then, another 8-0 gave Georgia the lead for good, closing the game out with free throws from Bridges, Jusaun Holt, Roberts and Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe.

“I just love my guys, man,” Oquendo said when asked what he learned about his teammates in the process of playing from behind to ultimately come back and win. “I think this team is a hard-fought team, and we’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of different backgrounds that are ready to fight wherever.”

After the game, White mentioned that freshman big man KyeRon Lindsay, who has started eight games and played in 10 games this season, was not on the bench for the game and is not currently with the team. He wasn’t able to expound any more upon why exactly that was.

Georgia, now 9-3 on the season, will go a week between games, taking on Rider at Stegeman Coliseum next Wednesday. Tipoff time against the Broncs is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+. That will be the final non-conference game of the season before SEC play begins on January 4th against Auburn.

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