Georgia Basketball wraps up busy opening week with Sunday win
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Basketball picked up its second win of the season, defeating NC Central Sunday afternoon at Stegeman Coliseum. For the Bulldogs, it’s their third game in seven days – opening the season on Monday against Oregon (82-71 L) before hosting Wake Forest (80-77 W) on Friday night.
It wasn’t pretty by any means. After averaging 75.5 points per game in the first two outings and putting up 99 in the exhibition earlier this month, Georgia finished well below that in the 64-54 win. UGA shot 35.8% from the field and let the Eagles hang around for much of the game as a result.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim finished as Georgia’s leading scorer for the second time in three outings as he had 13 points, 10 of which came from the free throw stripe. He was just 1-of-5 from the field with four of those attempts from 3-point range. Abdur-Rahim led Georgia just once in 32 games last season.
Abdur-Rahim was joined in double-figures by Justin Hill (11) and Silas Demary (10). Meanwhile, Demary’s fellow freshman Blue Cain led the team in rebounds with seven.
Georgia got out to an early lead thanks to a 10-0 run that featured strong play from Russel Tchewa in the post and a pair of fast break layups by Silas Demary. Dunks from RJ Melendez and Jalen DeLoach along with a 3-pointer from Justin Hill provided other highlights in an otherwise uneventful first half that saw the Bulldogs go the last 4:08 without a made field goal. Still, UGA entered the locker room ahead.
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The second half didn’t get off to much better of a start. In fact, NC Central was able to take the lead with a 7-0 run. At the time, Georgia was in the midst of an over-10:00 long run of game-time without a field goal.
Blue Cain put an end to the offensive woes with a 3-pointer that tied the game at 32. Then, after a layup on the other end by NC Central, Georgia scored 13 straight. Both DeLoach and Demary pitched in a pair of buckets while Hill once again hit from 3-point range to put the Bulldogs up 11 at the 10:47 mark.
Another run from NC Central cut the Eagles deficit to five, but Georgia was able to hold off and get back to up double-digits by the final media timeout, scoring 11 of the final 18 points down the stretch. Jabri Abdur-Rahim had six of those from the free throw strike while Hill had the other five on a layup and a 3-pointer, his third of the game.
The Bulldogs are back in action later this week, and it’ll be out of the country. As part of the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship, Georgia will take on preseason No. 13 Miami (Fla.) on Friday (3:30 p.m ET, CBS Sports Network). The Hurricanes made the Final Four last season and return three starters plus their sixth man. After that, it’s a Sunday game against the same-result opponent of Kansas State-Providence also in the Bahamas.
