The ball ended up in the hands of Georgia’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on both the first and last possessions of the second half Saturday.
On the first possession after halftime, the sophomore guard swished a jump shot to give Georgia its first lead of the contest over Southern California at 29-28. On the last possession, he stole the ball from Trojans forward Ari Stewart with four seconds remaining, sealing the Bulldogs’ 64-56 victory.
Caldwell-Pope scored four of his game-high 25 points in the first minute of the second half, following up his basket on the opening possession with a tip-in on the next, lifting Georgia (4-7) from a 28-27 deficit to a 31-28 edge. Getting off to a hot start out of the locker room was a point Bulldogs coach Mark Fox made clear to his team at halftime.
“I told them I thought we played 39 good minutes against Mercer, and the one bad minute was the start of the second half,” Fox said. “I said, ‘We can’t start halves that way. We’ve got to make sure when the ball is inbounded to start the second half we’ve got to be ready to make some plays.’ And we certainly had a couple of easy buckets there to start the half that gave us the lead, and then we were able to play from in front.”
Once out front, the Bulldogs were able to stretch their lead to as many as nine points thanks to Caldwell-Pope. In the first five minutes of the second half, he scored 12 of Georgia’s 14 points.
Though the sophomore was white-hot from the field in the second half — converting eight of his 10 field goal attempts — the Trojans (4-8) never double-teamed him, which surprised even Caldwell-Pope himself.
“Most teams, if I’m hot like that, they’re going to double me or try box-and-one, something,” he said.
That Caldwell-Pope led the Bulldogs in scoring is nothing new. He’s been Georgia’s top scorer in every game this season. Instead, Fox took satisfaction from Caldwell-Pope’s court awareness and the surgical manner with which he executed his shots, finishing 10-for-14 from the field.
“Kentavious was very efficient tonight, and we’ve been beating it into his head about how he needs to be an efficient player and to teach him how to be an efficient player,” Fox said. “Tonight he was just that — efficient. He’s growing up as a player, and you’ve got some guys around him that are growing up, which is certainly making his job a little easier.”
Two young players who made a difference were sophomore John Cannon and freshman Brandon Morris, who each scored 10 points. Cannon also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
Individual numbers aside, the most important statistic was two, as in the number of consecutive wins Georgia has after Saturday. It was the first time this season that the Bulldogs have won back-to-back games.
“I was proud of our determination and our second-half effort,” Fox said. “It was really key for us because we were able to play in front. That’s a really good win going into the holidays.”
