Dogs dig deep hole, can’t complete comeback

Athens — So much for building “momentum.”

That was the talk in Georgia’s camp after a stunning upset of Florida this past Saturday. Perhaps they could make it two wins in a row, the Bulldogs wondered aloud. Perhaps it would be a turning point for the rest of the year.

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Mikki K. Harris/mkharris@ajc.com

UGA’s Terrance Woodbury (3) can’t bear the final minutes of the Dogs’ loss to Auburn.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Auburn-Georgia box score

Alas, Auburn had other ideas.

The Tigers jumped ahead by 29 points in the game’s first 15 minutes, then held on as Georgia made a furious run to get within six with four minutes to play before scoring a 71-59 road victory.

The win was the fourth in a row for the upstart Tigers (17-9, 6-5 SEC), who find themselves in position to make a run at postseason play for the first time in six seasons. The victory margin was Auburn’s largest in Athens since 1977.

“I said, ‘I just hope we win the game because if we lose after being up like that it’s going to hurt bad,’ ” said Tay Waller, a junior from Manchester, who led Auburn with 20 points. Korvotney Barber, also of Manchester, added 11 points and 18 rebounds.

Aided by the Tigers’ slowed-down pace in the second half, the Bulldogs made a game of it. But they could not overcome a 30.5 percent shooting night.

Terrance Woodbury, who made 7 of 10 3-point shots on the way to a career-best 32 points against Florida, was 1-of-5 from behind the arc and 2-of-10 overall. Trey Thompkins was 3-of-13.

“It is the mystery of basketball,” Georgia interim coach Pete Herrmann said of the bad shooting. “It’s a fact of the game that shots aren’t always going to fall. I tell the guys, ‘don’t tighten up when you miss a shot.’ Stay loose on offense but tighten up on defense.”

Georgia didn’t do either one well early. The Bulldogs (10-16, 1-10) were shooting 11 percent at one point and didn’t score for a span of 8:30. Auburn simultaneously scored 19 consecutive points to build a 35-7 lead with 5:47 remaining in the first half.

Even when Thompkins finally converted a layup to break the drought at the 5:31 mark — drawing sarcastic applause from the sparse crowd — Auburn answered with another 3-pointer from Waller to stretch the lead to 29 points.

“It was one of those things,” said freshman point guard Dustin Ware, who led the Bulldogs with 14 points. “In the first half we couldn’t put the ball in the basket. I think it affected our intensity, and that can’t happen.”

Georgia deserves some credit for not rolling over after being down 45-19 at the half. It got to within 60-54 on Travis Leslie’s putback off Ware’s missed free throw with 4:13 to play.

But the Bulldogs couldn’t make stops or baskets when it mattered. Auburn outscored them 9-3 the rest of the way.

“You blow so much energy trying to come back by the time you get there you’re exhausted,” Georgia senior captain Corey Butler said. “At least we showed some pride and integrity.”

In the meantime, the Tigers’ story is starting to get interesting. In the fifth season of what increasingly looked like the last of coach Jeff Lebo’s tenure, Auburn is making a sudden move toward a possible 20-win season.

“A league win on the road is hard to come by,” Lebo said. “We’ll take it.”