Georgia upsets St. John's, secures marquee win in The Bahamas

Georgia Basketball was a winner Sunday morning over St. John’s, defeating the 22nd-ranked Red Storm 66-63 in The Bahamas.

It’s just the second win over a ranked opponent in Mike White’s time at UGA (previous: No. 22 Auburn, January 2023) and the program’s first ranked win over a non-conference opponent since beating ranked Memphis teams in 2019-20 (No. 9, January 2020) and 2021-22 (No. 18, December 2021).

Led by Asa Newell and his 11 first-half points, Georgia jumped ahead on the Red Storm and led going into the locker room. Newell had a stretch where he was the UGA scorer on seven straight Bulldog points, while it was a pair of free throws by Blue Cain with 5:59 to go in the half that put Georgia in front.

Coming out of the half, Cain made a 3-pointer that gave Georgia it’s largest lead. St. John’s didn’t go down without a fight, going on a 7-0 run near the midway point of the second half that put the Red Storm ahead briefly. It was back and forth down the stretch with Newell once again helping Georgia gain an advantage.

The margin between the two teams didn’t extend past more than a bucket for several minutes with Silas Demary giving putting the Bulldogs on top with a layup with 1:59 to go. Then, an and-one Dylan James putback made it a four-point advantage and turned things to the free throw stripe. Demary, as well as Tyrin Lawrence, did their job and sealed the deal on the win with three Georgia players (Cain, Newell, RJ Godfrey) fouled out in the final few minutes.

“Hard-fought game, a ton of adversity for our team,” Georgia head coach Mike White shared in his opening statement. “We have a very young team, you know, led by this guy to my left (Newell). We’ve got two grad transfer guards and the rest of our guys, for the most part, are underclassmen, freshmen, and sophomores outside of RJ and Justin (Abson) if I’m not mistaken. To face that amount of adversity in so many different ways – foul trouble throughout the game, a costly turnover here, a missed shot there, a timely shot by them, you know, whether it be late clock or tip-in and-one – there were just so many up and downs during the game. It was a really emotional game, but we didn’t allow ourselves to be overly emotional. We played with a lot of maturity, especially for our age as a team. Couldn’t be more proud of the effort.”

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— Georgia Basketball (@UGABasketball) November 24, 2024

The win over St. John’s comes just 24 hours after an 80-69 loss to No. 15 Marquette on Saturday. Blue Cain knocked down five 3-pointers and led the team in scoring with 17 points while Tyrin Lawrence and Silas Demary added 15 and 10. Dakota Leffew had 11 off the bench.

Georgia trailed by just one at the break but an early second half 11-0 run by Marquette helped the Golden Eagles take a large lead. UGA had its own 11-0 run and cut the deficit to a single score, but the Bulldogs were outplayed down the stretch with a season-high 18 turnovers being too much to overcome.

“It’s proof. We just beat a legitimate team. St. John’s could beat anybody in the country, and we just beat St. John’s of course. We were right there with Marquette yesterday, who on Monday, I’m assuming will be in the top 10, and we had our chances right there. We were nip and tuck right down the stretch,” White said. “Two days in a row where we’re ultra competitive against two of the better teams in the country. We get one, and we’re just getting started with this group. I love the potential of this group. I love the team’s character. I love these guys as young people more than anything. They’re connected, they’re tough, they’re resilient.”

“That said, what are we, seven games in, guys? Seven games in. I look forward to getting some rest, our guys getting some rest tonight and tomorrow. We travel back, watch a lot of film, learn from these past couple games,” White continued. “That’s the biggest reason you come down here to an event like this is to play against two of these premier programs is to learn more about yourself. You hope to get two. You’d really like to get one. But even if we went 0-for, we’d have the right approach in terms of learning and figuring out how we can get better because we’ve got some really good pieces. These guys have got great work ethic and drive to become a pretty good team.” 

It’s back to Athens now for UGA, now 6-1 on the season and set to host Jacksonville this coming Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum. Tip time is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.