Too bad Georgia can’t take off two weeks between every game.
That was a concern for the Bulldogs coming into Sunday night’s game against Seton Hall. They hadn’t played since a Dec. 7 home win over Colorado and had been grinding through final exams in the meantime.
Turns out, Georgia played as sharp as it has all season and looked well-rested doing it, too. The Bulldogs (6-3) ran their Big East visitors out of the gym on the way to a 65-47 victory at Stegeman Coliseum.
Georgia’s transition game was lethal against the longer, taller Pirates. The Bulldogs out-scored Seton Hall 16-0 off the fast-break and 18-12 on points off turnovers.
And this didn’t come against some winter-break wimps. Seton Hall’s RPI of No. 21 is the second-highest the Bulldogs have faced this season. The Pirates’ (9-2) only loss before Sunday was on the road against No. 11 Wichita State and they had won the others by an average of 15 points.
But Seton Hall encountered a Georgia team that was fully on. Kenny Gaines proved to have recovered quite well from the shoulder injury that sent him to the hospital two weeks ago. Among his game-high 15 points were a couple of bring-down-the-house dunks, including a twirling, behind-the-head variety that few besides Dominique Wilkins have dared to try here.
“I guess a reverse, double-pump dunk,” Gaines said when asked what to call his aerial act. “I’m not sure what to refer to it as, but you can put that in the paper.”
Marcus Thornton flirted with another double-double but settled for 13 points and eight rebounds. Point guard J.J. Frazier, who is generously listed as 5 feet 10, had a career-high 11 rebounds to go with six points, seven assists and three steals.
“On a good day I’m 5-10,” Frazier quipped, “so I guess today was a good day.”
It was indeed. Georgia shot 42 from the field and held Seton Hall to 27 percent. But it was through hustle stats that the Bulldogs thoroughly dominated. Their 50-31 rebounding advantage was fueled by 14 on the offense end. They led in second-chance points 11-4 and points in the paint 30-18.
“We played terrific defense,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “I thought that and rebounding is why we won the game. … Our team is fresh. You give us two weeks to prepare for somebody we ought to know what we’re doing.”
Georgia shot out to a quick 14-4 lead and kept building on it from there. Before the visitors knew it, they were staring up at a 21-point deficit.
The Bulldogs’ chief weapon was speed. They were simply burying Seton Hall with their transition game. If they could have made foul shots — they missed 10 of 26 — they could have really sent the Pirates to the halftime locker room hurting. As it was, Georgia led 41-22 at intermission.
Frazier was the main inflictor. The Bulldogs’ diminutive sophomore point guard had a big stat line at the half: 6 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Georgia’s scoring was balanced as Juwan Parker led the way with nine and Thornton had eight.
