Dogs beat Presbyterian by eight

Athens — Georgia got what it wanted here at Stegeman Coliseum on Friday night, a hard-fought victory against a scrappy opponent.

That it came against Presbyterian College probably won’t do much for the ego.

The Bulldogs fell behind the tiny Southland Conference school for a brief period early in the second half before using a 13-0 run to regain control and hold on for a 55-47 victory.

“We got the win, and that’s what matters the most,” said senior captain Terrance Woodbury, who needed 14 shots to score 10 points.

“As far as having to fight that hard against them, that probably doesn’t look too good for us. But we’re going to have to fight like that down the stretch anyway, so we might as well get used to it.”

Georgia (2-1) will resume play at home Monday against Santa Clara (1-2) in the consolation bracket of the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament.

Presbyterian’s other two games this season were losses to Duke (80-49) and Houston (76-57). The Blue Hose (0-3) got within 49-44 with seven minutes to play against Georgia, but never closer.

“I’m really happy for a hard-fought win against a team that played about as good as it could and as perfectly as they could in terms of the way they needed to play it,” Georgia coach Dennis Felton said.

“All in all, we found ourselves in a war of a game and got tough in the middle of that second half to pull away from them.”

Georgia could have made it easier on itself from the foul line. The Bulldogs missed nine of 11 free throws, including its last five over the game’s final 8:13.

Sophomore guard Zac Swansey led the Bulldogs with 12 points and tied Jeremy Price and Travis Leslie for the game’s rebounding lead with six. Georgia shot 48 percent from the field while the Blue Hose shot 38 percent and committed 21 turnovers.

Presbyterian senior guard Brian Bostic of Norcross led all scorers with 22 points.

The Bulldogs were playing without star freshman Trey Thompkins (ankle) for the fourth consecutive game and starting center Albert Jackson sat out after aggravating an ankle injury in Tuesday’s win over Eastern Michigan.