No. 21 Georgia stumbles in Texas, suffers most lopsided loss of season
Texas turned up the defensive pressure on Georgia and the Bulldogs came apart on Saturday, suffering an 87-67 loss in Austin.
Georgia held a 37-30 lead at the half before the Longhorns heated up their shooting (making 22-of-32 field goals) for a dominant second half.
The Bulldogs offense, meanwhile, struggled to get off quality shots.
“I just thought we got emotional, because of the lack of stops,” UGA fourth-year coach Mike White said. “It gets loud in the arena, and we got out of character with shot selection and took some hero shots.”
The 20-point margin represented the Bulldogs’ most-lopsided loss of the season and marked the 12th home win for Texas against a ranked opponent in the Moody Center, which is tied for the fourth-most in the nation over the past four seasons.
The No. 21-ranked Bulldogs (16-4, 4-3 SEC) built their halftime lead with center Somto Cyril scoring 11 of his 12 points in the first 20 minutes against Texas (12-8, 3-4).
But even as Georgia was scoring points and building a first-half lead, the Longhorns were successful at slowing down UGA, which entered the game as the highest scoring team in the nation, averaging 94.8 points per outing.
The Bulldogs scored nine first-half points from the free-throw line and had just two fast-break points (finishing with seven), after leading the nation with 24.0 fast-break points per game.
Texas opened the second half on an 8-0 run to claim a 38-37 lead, shooting red-hot from the field with makes on its first eight shots from the floor.
Blue Cain scored back-to-back baskets to put UGA back on top, 41-38, but the Longhorns persisted.
Dailyn Swain (26 points on 12-of-16 shooting) and Tramon Mark (23 points, 10-of-16 shooting) proved too much for UGA’s defense to handle.
Mark and Swain scored on back-to-back possessions to key a 7-0 Longhorns run that made it 65-54 in favor of the Longhorns with 9:34 left, leading White to call for a timeout.
Georgia could not get leading scorer Jeremiah Wilkinson going — he had 17 points on 4-of-12 shooting — or turn the momentum back in its favor.
Texas led by double digits the remainder of the game, its lead swelling to as many as 23 points.
The Bulldogs, projected as a 7-seed in Joe Lunardi’s ESPN Bracketology, will return to Athens and face Tennessee at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Georgia is 11-1 at Stegeman Coliseum this season.
White said he expects UGA to be able to practice on Sunday and continue preparations on campus, even with Athens under an ice storm warning.
“My assumption is we get right back at it (Sunday) with film, and hopefully we all can get to the facility,” White said from the team bus at it headed to the airport with UGA scheduled to fly back to Athens on Saturday afternoon. “Because we have a lot to talk about and work on.”
The Longhorns, who entered the game among the “First Four Out” in Lunardi’s Bracketology, travel to play at Auburn at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
About the Author
Mike is in his 10th season covering SEC and Georgia athletics for AJC-DawgNation and has 25 years of CFB experience. Mike is a Heisman Trophy voter and former Football Writers President who was named the National FWAA Beat Writer of the Year in January, 2018.
