Georgia’s season is suddenly in danger of coming off the rails.
The Bulldogs lost their second consecutive home game and, like the last one, it came against one of the worst teams in the SEC. Three days after falling to Auburn, Georgia looked even worse in losing to South Carolina 64-58 on Tuesday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
The final score masks how truly awful the Bulldogs (16-9, 7-6 SEC) played in the game. They trailed the Gamecocks (13-12, 4-9) by 18 points at halftime but used a sustained second-half run to make it interesting toward the end.
Yante Maten’s two free throws with 4:31 to play tied the game at 51-all. But Georgia could never grab the lead. Kenny Paul Geno missed two foul shots at the 3:23 mark and South Carolina made two 3s and had a put-back down the stretch to secure its first SEC road win of the year.
Tyrone Johnson and Duane Notice led the Gamecocks with 17 points apiece and Mindaugas Kacinas added 13.
Charles Mann led the Bulldogs with 17 points and Kenny Gaines added 11.
So instead of making up ground against two of the league’s lower-level teams on its homestand, the Bulldogs head to Alabama this Saturday in full-blown desperation mode. Granted, the Bulldogs have had to deal with more than their share of injury issues. The latest loss was point guard J.J. Frazier, who became the third Georgia player to be sidelined this season with a concussion. He also suffered an orbital fracture in a collision that occurred against Auburn.
Georgia is still playing without starting small forward Juwan Parker, who is out with an Achilles injury. Geno played his first game back Tuesday from a broken wrist and had two points and six rebounds in 12 minutes.
But South Carolina was playing short-handed as well. Shortly before Tuesday’s game, coach Frank Martin announced that sophomore forward Demetrius Henry, a starter, and freshman guard Shamiek Sheppard were suspended for the remainder of the regular season for “conduct detrimental to the team.” South Carolina also was without guard Marcus Stroman, who was missing his third straight game with a throat infection.
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