Illinois blows out Bulldogs in Chicago

Chicago — Georgia coach Dennis Felton meant it when he said that he “had a lot to talk about” with his team following an ugly 76-42 loss to Illinois on Saturday at the United Center.

The Bulldogs fell into an early 13-point deficit and yielded the game’s final 22 points, prompting Felton to hold a 45-minute meeting after Georgia’s worst loss in four seasons.

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AP

Georgia’s Corey Butler attempts to block a shot by Illinois’ Demetri McCamey. Butler finished with five points.

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“The wheels fell off for us,” said Felton about a second half in which his club was outscored 46-19. “They got the momentum, we kind of lost some of our confidence and once the momentum certainly worked against us we didn’t have enough fight to really do something about it.”

The coach waited about 45 minutes after the game to speak to the Bulldogs because the players held their own team meeting. Then Felton came in and let them have it.

“Led by our three captains, we discussed what was wrong, what we had to do to fix it,” guard Zac Swansey said. “Then coach kind of came in and gave his lecture.

“It was probably about 30-45 minutes that we were in there. He was talking about how we didn’t compete, how we didn’t play hard and what we need to do to fix that come Tuesday (against Virginia Tech).”

Georgia (5-3) finished with seven assists and a season-high 27 turnovers, and

allowed Illinois to shoot 69.0 percent (20-of-29) after halftime. The Bulldogs shot 29.6 percent (8-of-27) in the second half in their worst loss since an 87-49 defeat to Georgia Tech on Dec. 5, 2004.

“They’re a very good defensive team, without a doubt coming into the game,” Felton said. “But we were very weak both with our team offense and our individual offense.”

Illinois made eight of its first 10 shots to take a 19-6 lead eight minutes into the contest, including 13 points in that span from star Demetri McCamey to force Felton to abandon his man-to-man defense in favor of a 1-3-1 zone. The strategy worked, as the Illini cooled off and Georgia got as close as five points before going to the break trailing, 30-23, its first halftime deficit of the season.

But the 1-3-1 was picked apart by Illinois in the second half and Felton switched back to his man-to-man defense coming out of a timeout with 6:28 left. The Illini responded with 20 more unanswered points to close the game.

Terrance Woodbury was the only Georgia player to reach double figures with 13 points. No other player had more than six. Howard Thompkins, who averaged 14.3 points in his first two games with the Bulldogs, had just four on 2-of-10 shooting.

“Only scoring 42 points is frustrating with all the talent we have on this team,” Swansey said.

McCamey led all scorers with 19 points for the Illini, who improved to 5-0 all-time against Georgia. Illinois, which will play the Bulldogs next season in Duluth at the Arena at Gwinett Center, also had a 14-0 edge in fast-break points.