Georgia outlasts Wake Forest for 80-77 win in home opener
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Basketball won a big one at home Friday night, defeating Wake Forest 80-77. Noah Thomasson led the way for the Bulldogs with 21 points making a trio of 3-pointers in the process while Jabri Abdur-Rahim added three of his own from deep to help the Dawgs outlast the Demon Deacons.
Georgia and Wake Forest traded blows in the first half of action with the Bulldogs leading 40-36 at the break. In the first 8:00, Georgia forced five turnovers but gave up five 3-pointers in that same stretch.
Jumping out to an early lead than to a 7-0 run, the Bulldogs held that advantage until the 13:30 mark when the Demon Deacons hit a 3-pointer on a second straight trip down the court. Five straight Wake makes were from beyond the arc to give them an 8-point lead with 10:49 to go before the break.
Georgia responded however, using a 10-0 run to tie and take the lead. As a part of it, Noah Thomasson dropped his defender to the floor followed by a Silas Demary slam dunk in transition.
Wake Forest would tie the game twice more in the first half, but an impressive stretch of play by Jabri Abdur-Rahim gave UGA the lead.
The senior in his third season in Georgia’s program managed to recover from a miscue on the offensive end by throwing the ball off of his defender. Then, on the inbound, he hit a 3-pointer, Georgia’s first of the night.
The next two trips down the court resulted in more from Abdur-Rahim. He was fouled on a deep attempt and made both of his awarded free throws. Then, it was back to making shots from beyond the arc to score eight straight. He finished the first half with 10 points, the only Bulldog in double-figures.
Despite a strong stretch to close the half by the Demon Deacons, Georgia went into the locker room with the 4-point lead.
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The first 5:00 of the second half saw two ties and eight lead changes as Georgia and Wake Forest went back and forth. The Bulldogs however went on a 10-0 run after the eighth of those changes as Blue Cain had a steal and score followed by Abdur-Rahim’s third 3-pointer of the game to make it 59-50 UGA.
Georgia extended its lead to double-digits as the Bulldogs entered the bonus with 11:31 to go on a fourth foul by Wake Forest’s leading scorer Kevin Miller and a pair of made free throws by the Demary. The freshman then found Russel Tchewa in transition for a slam dunk that sent the Stegeman Coliseum crowd into a roar, making it a 7-0 Georgia run, the fifth Bulldog run of at least seven points on the night.
The Demon Deacons didn’t go down without a fight though. Going on a 12-1 run, Wake Forest got it to a one-possession game with 4:48 to go at 74-72.
Georgia put an end to an over-3:00 stretch without a field goal on a make by Thomasson and followed it up with two more straight buckets, a dunk by Jalen DeLoach and a putback off of an offensive rebound by RJ Melendez. That gave the Bulldogs an 8-point lead with 2:11 to go.
Wake was able to get its deficit down to three points with under a minute to go as part of a 5-0 run. But, thanks to a missed 3-pointer by Cameron Hildreth with 2 seconds to go, the Bulldogs were able to hold on despite not scoring in the final 2:11 of action.
It’s a quick turnaround for Georgia, now 1-1 on the season, with another game this weekend. The Bulldogs host North Carolina Central on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
