Georgia overcomes halftime deficit, defeats South Carolina on road
The Georgia Bulldogs got themselves their first Q1 win of the season on Tuesday night in Columbia, winning 75-69 at South Carolina. The win, which puts UGA at 13-4 on the season and 3-1 in the SEC, helps get Georgia back on track after a near upset on Saturday over top-10 Tennessee.
Freshman Silas Demary Jr. led the Bulldogs in scoring with 15 points including nine from the free throw stripe. He was joined in double figures by RJ Melendez (12) and Jabri Abdur-Rahim (11). Meanwhile, for South Carolina, Meechie Johnson and B.J. Mack led the Gamecocks with 19 and 16 respectively.
Georgia’s win over South Carolina is the first in Columbia since 2016. The Gamecocks had won 13 of the previous 14 matchups between the two teams.
How It Happened…
The first half saw a back and forth affair with neither team leading by more than two scores and eight total lead changes. Georgia turned it over only once in the first 20 minutes, but the Bulldogs shot just 13-of-34 (38.2%) from the field which prevented them from gaining much traction.
Big man Russel Tchewa got back on track with nine points in the first half. Meanwhile, RJ Melendez added 10 as he knocked down a pair of 3-pointers as part of a 10-0 UGA run to go from down six to up four. Before the half though, South Carolina had retaken its lead and entered the locker room up 34-33.
South Carolina started the second half with five straight points before a 7-0 run gave the Gamecocks their largest lead of the night up to that point, up nine with 14:05 to go. Justin Hill and Georgia responded though as Hill scored six straight to get right back in it.
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Hill’s 6-0 run was stopped with a pair of free throws from South Carolina, but Georgia as a team continued to keep the scoring going. With the Gamecocks struggling from the field – and from the free throw stripe – the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run to retake the lead at the 9:14 mark on a layup from Frank Anselem-Ibe. All in all, by the time South Carolina hit another field goal, Georgia had used a 19-5 run over a stretch of almost 10:00 to take a five-point lead. However, the first field goal back, a Meechie Johnson 3-pointer, made it a 2-point game with 4:57 to go.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Silas Demary both reached double figures in the second half, and both came up big for the Bulldogs at the free throw line. Without UGA hitting a field goal between the 6:37 mark (an Abdur-Rahim 3-pointer) and the 1:40 mark, Demary made four free throws while Abdur-Rahim added two. Anselem-Ibe also came up big with a jump hook to end the stretch without field goals, and ultimately, the free throw shooting, and a clutch jumper from Hill with under a minute to go and the shot clock expiring, was what helped seal the deal on the win.
In the past 25 seasons, Georgia has won three of its first four in SEC play just nine times. It has happened in each of the two seasons under Mike White’s direction. It’s also just the third time since the turn of the century that the Bulldogs have started 2-0 on the road in the SEC.
Georgia goes on the road to wrap up the week, making the trip to No. 8 Kentucky on Saturday. Tip time between the Bulldogs and Wildcats at Rupp Arena in Lexington is set for 6:00 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
