Mississippi State puts UGA out of its misery

Tampa — Mercifully it ended.

Georgia’s dreadful 2008-09 basketball season is finally over. It ended decisively and unceremoniously against Mississippi State, 79-60 in the first round of SEC Tournament at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Enlarge this image

AP

ississippi State center Jarvis Varnado, left, celebrates after dunking the ball over Georgia’s Chris Barnes.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Georgia-Mississippi State box score

There would be no more miracles — or tornadoes — for the defending tournament champs. Instead, it ended with an interim coach on the bench and with 20 marks in the loss column. For the sixth consecutive season, the Bulldogs (12-20) have lost 14 or more games.

State (20-12), the No. 6 seed from the West, advances to face East No. 2 seed South Carolina at 3:15 p.m. Friday.

Misery aside, the Georgia players weren’t ready for it to end.

“With all we’ve been through, I would’ve liked to keep playing,” said senior captain Terrance Woodbury, who led the Bulldogs with 14 points and seven rebounds. “I wanted to win this game and go all the way to the championship again and play in the NCAAs again. I never will again now.”

“You definitely don’t want to see it come to an end,” co-captain and fellow senior Corey Butler said. “You always want to continue playing with guys you feel such a tremendous bond with. It’s definitely rough.”

With a minute left in the game and the outcome decided, an emotional Pete Herrmann walked along the team bench and hugged every player.

“I’ve coached for almost 40 years, and these are as fine a people as I’ve ever been associated with,” said Herrmann, who took over when coach Dennis Felton was fired Jan. 29. “They made these last six weeks bearable and enjoyable, despite the roller coaster of emotions all of us had.”

Georgia was nothing if not resilient. After being down by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Bulldogs used a 12-2 run to get within 47-42 on a Woodbury 3-point shot with 14:47 to go.

But just as quickly Georgia committed four consecutive turnovers and State answered with two 3-pointers, two free throws and a thunderous dunk from Jarvis Varnado. That got its lead back to 15 in less than two minutes. It was up to 20 by the 8:09 mark.

State’s Kodi Augustus, who came in averaging five points per game, had 10 at halftime and finished with a career-high 19. Varnado added 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks and Raven Johnson added 12.

The Bulldogs got 12 points and seven rebounds from freshman forward Trey Thompkins and freshman point guard Dustin Ware had seven assists. Sophomore forward Chris Barnes had eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in only 12 minutes.

Now Georgia can get busy working on the future. That means finding a new coach and rebuilding another team.

The heavy lifting on a coaching search hasn’t gotten started yet. That will come in the next few weeks as other teams’ seasons come to an end in the NCAA Tournament.

Some of the players will return; some of them won’t. They’re all eager to learn their fates.

“Right now I’m going to take some time just to relax,” said Thompkins, one of nine freshmen and sophomores. “I’m not going to think about basketball for about a week or a week and half and let my body heal up 100 percent. After that I’m looking forward to finding out who the next coach will be.”