With the entire state of Georgia in a deep freeze, perhaps it was inevitable that it would be a cold shooting night for the Bulldogs on Wednesday.
Playing before a surprisingly good crowd of considering the conditions outdoors — 6,234 — the Bulldogs couldn’t find the basket despite a flurry of good looks. Georgia shot 27 percent from the field and an abysmal 17 percent from 3-point range. They were 1-for-18 on 3-pointers before making 3 of 5 in desperation while playing from behind in the game’s final minute.
Sharp-shooting Vanderbilt is the wrong team to do that against. Its long-range specialists made eight 3-pointers and iced the game easily from the free-throw line, 59-54.
It was a costly loss for the Bulldogs (10-9, 4-3 SEC). It broke what had been an eight-game home winning streak and came against a Vanderbilt team playing with seven scholarship players because of suspensions and injuries. The Commodores improve to 11-8 overall and 3-4 in league play.
“Our players got what we deserved. We got whooped,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We got beat. We didn’t play well. We can’t shoot the ball like that, we can’t rebound like that, we’ve can’t defend like that and win a game.”
The Bulldogs were hurt by the absence of starting shooting guard Kenny Gaines, who missed his second consecutive game with a bruised thigh. His fill-in, Juwan Parker, didn’t do much filling in. He was 0-for-10 from the floor and 0-for-5 from 3-point range.
“Trust me, I won’t forget this game,” said Parker, a freshman making his third start. “I’ll probably go in the gym tonight and shoot some.”
Parker wasn’t the only one. Walkon Taylor Echols was 0-for-5 from 3 before making his last two in the final minute. And forward Nemi Djurisic was 0-for-3.
Charles Mann led the Bulldogs with 20 points, nine coming on foul shots, and Brandon Morris added 12.
“We’ve got to start shooting the ball in,” Fox said. “It’s not that hard a skill.”
Rod Odom led Vanderbilt with 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Dai-Jon Parker, who played at Milton High, added 15. Kyle Fuller scored 10 of his 14 points from the foul line.
It was the Commodores’ eighth consecutive win over Georgia. It came despite considerable travel snafus getting to the game. Because of the snow storm, Vanderbilt’s plane was not allowed to land in Athens. It was re-routed to Atlanta and the team eventually ended up in Greenville, where it spent Tuesday night.
“I told them that is no excuse,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. “All that matters is that we have a game at 7-eastern time tomorrow and we need to be ready to go.”
The Commodores were, but the Bulldogs weren’t.
“We didn’t have enough spirit to begin with,” junior Marcus Thornton said. “That contributed to the way we played on both ends of the court. Defensively we didn’t do a good enough job and offensively we didn’t get anything done.”
Georgia fell behind by as many as 10 points in the first half but got within three points three times within a three-minutes stretch midway through the second half. In each instance the Bulldogs got the ball back with a chance to inch closer. But they missed wide-open 3s twice and Marcus Thornton couldn’t convert a contested lay-up the other time.
At the 7:59 mark, Vandy’s Odom followed Echols’ missed 3-pointer with a trey from the top of the key and Georgia never seriously threatened again.
The Bulldogs finally found the range from behind the arc and actually got within 56-52 on a Charles Mann 3-pointer with 15 seconds to go. But Kenny Paul Geno was called for an intentional foul on the ensuing possession and Vanderbilt got three points on the trip to assure the victory.
“I’m perturbed because we didn’t play well,” Fox said. “Vanderbilt taught us a lesson out there. I’m perturbed with how we played. … I’m not happy with how our team approached this game.”
Georgia has two days to try to fix its issues. It travels to Auburn on Saturday.
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