ATHENS — Well, at least there’s that attendance thing.
The Georgia Bulldogs set the school’s all-time attendance mark with another big crowd at Stegeman Coliseum Wednesday night. But what they witnessed was another loss as the Bulldogs fell 78-75 to an Auburn team fighting for an NCAA bid.
The loss was a record 13th in a row in SEC play for the Bulldogs (10-18) and matches their most conference losses in a season since they went 2-14 in 2005. With their second win over Georgia this season, the Tigers improve to 19-9 overall and 8-7 in league play.
Auburn got 22 points from Jared Harper and 13 from Chuma Okeke. Both players are Atlanta residents.
The Bulldogs were led by Jordan Harris with 18 points and Nicolas Claxton had 14. Derek Ogbeide and Turtle Jackson added 13 each.
Georgia stuck to the formula that has kept it in this record rut this year. That is, they played recklessly with the ball early, committed a lot of turnovers and fell behind by as many as 14 points in the first half. But as is usually also the case, the Bulldogs fought and clawed their way back into the game.
It even looked for a time like Georgia might actually pull this one out. The Bulldogs pulled ahead by one point a couple of times late in the game and were tied at 75-all after Claxton made a 3-pointer with 54.1 seconds to play.
But following back-to-back blocked shots by Ogbeide and Claxton that left Auburn with only :03 on the shot clock and 27.1 seconds remaining in the game, Okeke managed to drained a long, hurried 3-pointer from the left wing for what would end up as the final margin of the game.
The Bulldogs lost control of the ball briefly on their final possession and Tyree Crump couldn’t get off a decent shot as his 3-pointer fell woefully short at the final horn.
Georgia pulled within 57-56 as the Derek Ogbeide Show broke out in the middle of the second half. His two layups with a steal in between capped an 11-0 run over 5:07 to force Auburn to call a timeout at the 11:55 mark. The senior forward wasn’t through. After blocking an Auburn shot, Ogbeide scored on another layup to give the Bulldogs a 58-57 lead, their first since being ahead 13-12 in the first half.
After that, the teams traded baskets for about four or five minutes before Auburn pushed ahead by six with 5 minutes to go. That’s when Georgia made its last push.
Georgia already had its hands full facing an Auburn team that beat it by 15 on the Plains on Jan. 12. Then it was determined that Rayshaun Hammonds would be unable to play. The Bulldogs’ No. 2 scorer injured his right foot against Ole Miss last Saturday, but it had worsened to the point doctors decided he should rest it. With three games left in the regular season, he’s day-to-day now.
The good news is Georgia broke the school record for all-time attendance at Stegeman Coliseum and they did it with still one more home game to go. The Bulldogs play host to Missouri Wednesday in what will likely be their best bid to get another win this season. In the meantime, they have to go to Florida on Saturday and close the season at South Carolina on March 9.
Unless they can win another game somewhere, Georgia is in position to record its worst SEC record since Ken Rosemond’s 1973-74 team went 2-16.
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