Georgia falls 72-63 to Florida, dropping fourth straight game
On Wednesday night, Georgia dropped its fourth consecutive game in a 72-63 loss to the Bulldogs’ arch-rival, the Florida Gators. Coming off of an emotional loss to the No.1 Auburn Tigers last Saturday, the Bulldogs showed many of the same fatal flaws in Gainesville.
“I thought our guys executed in a lot of really good ways,” Georgia head coach Tom Crean said. “Again, it’s the second game in a row where even though we’re not scoring and the other team is, they just have a lead. It’s not a cushion, right. Because they weren’t able to take momentum from us. And our guys come back out in the second half and we go right back at it. So, it’s a tough way to lose. They’re a good team. Our kids are putting so much into this and it’s just a tough way to lose on the road. And I feel for them because I know what work they’re putting into it, them and the coaches, and I think the fans saw it on Saturday with the auburn game– what they’re putting into it. I hope that we’ll have a great crowd on Saturday when South Carolina comes at two o’clock.
On a positive note, Bulldog sophomore guard Kario Oquendo continued his strong showing, scoring 22 points with eight rebounds and four steals against the Gators. Over the last two games, Oquendo has scored 47 combined points, proving to be a bright spot in an inconsistent Georgia offense.
Despite a strong showing by Oquendo, his performance was overshadowed by the Gators’ Myreon Jones, who scored 23 points off of seven 3-pointers, two more 3-pointers than the entire Georgia roster made.
Late in the game, Georgia had an opportunity to make a comeback, trailing by as little as five points with just over a minute to play. Crean explained how this was able to happen, and why the Dawgs were not able to seize their opportunity.
“We kept scoring. They made a couple of threes. We had a tough time when it was 66-61 coming off their bucket when we wanted to get a drive for Braelen. They did a good job defensively on deflecting it and the play broke a little bit and we got in trouble and we just turned it over. And then they made a big three.”
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The Bulldogs were successful in multiple categories tonight, including on the boards, where they out-rebounded the Gators 38-33, including a 13-8 triumph in offensive rebounds. At the free throw line, Georgia found a lot of success, making 16 of the 20 attempts (80%) while Florida only managed to make 8 of the 13 attempts (62%).
As mentioned earlier, Georgia struggled a lot from the 3-point line managing to hit a mere five 3-pointers on their 25 attempts. Aaron Cook and Jabri-Abdur Rahim were both responsible for two of those 3-pointers, but neither Bulldog found much success beyond that.
Georgia is back in action this Saturday when they take on the 13-10 South Carolina Gamecocks in Stegeman Coliseum. The Bulldogs faced UofSC earlier this season in Columbia, falling 83-66 in a blowout loss on January 22nd. Saturday’s game will be broadcast on SEC Network at 2:00 p.m. ET.
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