Georgia moves to 11-1 with win over Charleston Southern
It’s another win for Georgia Basketball, and the Bulldogs are 11-1 on the season after defeating Charleston Southern 81-65 in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate.
With the win, Georgia continues its strong start, best in program history since 2001 and tying the start to the season of that 2001-02 team, the last time UGA won a game in the NCAA Tournament. The 1996-97 team that is tied for the all-time single-season wins record in program history also started 11-1. Only the Bulldogs’ 1923-24 and 1930-31 teams have gotten off to better starts to the season going 13-1 and 13-0/23-1 respectively.
DeShayne Montgomery led the team in scoring with 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting just a matter of days after going for 16 in his Georgia debut earlier this week. That total was tied for the team-high in the 100-49 win over Buffalo on Thursday. His fellow Mount St. Mary’s transfer Dakota Leffew pitched in 19 (8-for-12) while Asa Newell had 14 with seven rebounds as well. Justin Abson came off the bench and led the team on the boards, pulling down eight.
Montgomery and Leffew were big for the Bulldogs from the jump. Entering less than five minutes into the game, the two combined to score 23 straight of Georgia’s points, helping settle the game down after Charleston Southern went on an 11-0 run.
Trailing briefly, an and-one from Montgomery regained the lead for the Bulldogs before he later broke a tie with a transition dunk and a 3-pointer. Those were part of Georgia’s own 11-0 run to go into the locker room up 37-26.
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Georgia didn’t trail in the second half, but the Buccaneers kept things interesting for the most part. Once again it was Montgomery – along with some help from Leffew, Newell, Somto Cyril, Tyrin Lawrence and Silas Demary – that played a big part in putting the game away late. The Bulldogs made six second-half 3-pointers while Montgomery got to the rim well.
Charleston Southern had its own impressive players in this one as well. Taje’ Kelly led all scorers with 29 points and 10 rebounds, his fourth straight double-double and fifth in the last six games. He was particularly impressive in the second half with 22 points and eight rebounds after the break. Lamar Oden Jr. added 14 points and was second on the team with six rebounds. Both Kelly and Oden played all 40 minutes.
Georgia players get a few days off for the holidays before they return to the floor a week from today against South Carolina State next Sunday. Tip time for that one is set for 2:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
