Georgia’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope did not record a field goal and had his lowest scoring output of the season. But there was not a happier player in the Bulldogs’ locker room after they registered their fifth win in a row on Saturday night, 52-46, over Texas A&M.
“It is nice just knowing that my teammates were contributing and scoring the ball,” said Caldwell-Pope, who had scored 19 or more in Georgia’s last four games, including 24 at Tennessee on Wednesday. “It’s good to see them playing hard on the offensive end and making baskets anyway they could. It’s an amazing feeling just to keep winning.”
Georgia (12-11, 6-4) hadn’t won five in a row in SEC regular-season play since 2001, when it was an NCAA tournament team. Having now won six of their last seven, the Bulldogs remain in a tie for fifth in the league. Alabama – one of the teams above them – is coming to Athens on Tuesday for a 9 p.m. tipoff. The Crimson Tide (14-8, 6-3) was playing host to LSU late Saturday and Georgia could move into a tie for fourth with a Bama loss.
The Aggies (14-9, 4-6), who had to travel halfway across the U.S. after knocking off No. 21 Missouri 70-68 on Thursday night, fall to Georgia for the second time this season. It was their first trip ever to Stegeman Coliseum.
Caldwell-Pope, who came into the game as the SEC’s second-leading scorer and had been on a tear of late, did manage 10 points to keep his double-figure scoring streak alive for this season. But he had to go 10-for-10 from the foul line in get them. He was 0-for-3 shooting, which kept him without a field goal for the first time in his two-year college career.
Saturday it was Nemanja Djurisic who picked up the scoring slack. The 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Montenegro came off the bench to lead Georgia with 13 points. Eight other Bulldogs got into the scoring column, led by senior guard Vincent Williams with 7.
“We’re learning how to play together,” Djurisic said. “On the nights he doesn’t feel as good, we step up. Everyone’s been stepping up recently. We’ve been having about nine guys a night score. The whole bench is contributing.”
Caldwell-Pope’s chief issue Saturday was the man was who defending him. A&M star Elston Turner shadowed Caldwell-Pope’s every step, playing 35 minutes to “KCP’s” 33 and denying him the ball throughout. It cost Turner on the offensive end. A 15.6-points-per-game scorer, Turner was 2-for-14 from the field, 0-for-6 from 3-point range and got nine of his 13 points from the foul line.
Guard Fabyon Harris led the Aggies with 17 points. But they shot a season-worst 24 percent from the field and 17.6 from 3-point range en route to season-low point total.
“Oftentimes you take a great scorer and have him guard a stiff on the other end,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “Here we had two great, great scorers and they guarded each other. That’s a neat matchup because they’re both talented players and they both defended well. Kentavious doesn’t make a basket, but he was very patient throughout the game, got to the free throw line and still had a pretty good night for us.”
Georgia led the game from start to finish and had gone ahead by as many as 12 points. But the Aggies closed to within three points, 35-32, on a pair of J’Mychael Reese foul shots with 9:40 to play.
But after a UGA timeout, the Bulldogs answered with a Vincent Williams’ 3-pointer one second ahead of the shot-clock buzzer. Georgia forced two misses and a turnover on A&M’s next three possessions. Meanwhile, Caldwell-Pope hit a pair from the line and Sherrard Brantley jarred a 3-point basket to get the lead back to 11.
Georgia kept the Aggies at arm’s length until the final minute when things got a little chippy. Caldwell-Pope got tied up for a jump ball when he and Fox thought A&M should have been called for a foul. Then after Caldwell-Pope was whistled for an infraction on the other end, he was called for a technical with 20 seconds remaining.
“I was just talking to my teammates but some bad words slipped out,” Caldwell-Pope explained.
The Aggies made four consecutive free throws to get within 50-46. But Caldwell-Pope made sure it stood up when he made the final foul shots with 17 seconds left.
“Well, that was a slugfest, a really physical, hard-fought game with both teams really defending,” said Fox, whose team beat A&M Jan. 26 in College Station. “Our kids were hungry and made enough plays to win it.”
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