It’s official. Georgia is not going to go undefeated SEC basketball play this season.
That probably won’t come as much of a surprise considering the Bulldogs’ history, recent or otherwise. But it was a surprise that they’d arrive at Florida on Tuesday as one of the SEC’s four unbeaten teams in conference play.
They’re not any more.
The No. 7-ranked Gators took care of that in decisive fashion Tuesday night at the O’Connell Center. They won the25th consecutive time in this old building — a school record. The final score was 70-52.
Michael Frazier led Gators with 21 points and five 3-pointers. JUwan Parker led Georgia with 13 and Marcus Thornton added 11.
The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 8-7 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. They knocked off then No. 21 Missouri in Columbia to open conference play and followed that up with a home win over Alabama this past weekend.
But unlike those games, this one was never really competitive. That is, for the first few minutes of the contest.
The game started well enough for Georgia. The Bulldogs played the hard-pressing to a 6-6 tie over the opening five minutes. But after the first media timeout, the wheels came off for the black-clad visitors.
By the time halftime mercilessly arrived, Georgia was staring up at a 36-16 deficit. And getting there was a horrific sight.
The Bulldogs committed 12 turnovers, Florida scored 24 points off those turnovers, the Gators scored 24 of their points in the paint and Georgia shot 31 percent from the field. Charles Mann, who scored 40 points in the last two games to earn SEC player of the week honors, had one point at intermission.
Georgia coach Mark Fox was understandably exasperated by the lack of poise and tried to calm his players during multiple timeouts.
There was actually a brief span in the second half where the Bulldogs almost made it a game. Thornton’s layup at the 11:35 mark cut the Gators’ advantage to 14 points and Georgia had back-to-back opportunities to slice into it further.
But Kenny Gaines could not convert a driving layup and Donte Williams could not tip in the rebound. Gaines missed another layup attempt as he was moving too fast on a break the next time down the court.
Florida finally regained control by making four free throws on its next two possessions. Later, Frazier, the SEC’s leading 3-point shooter, heated up. He made three treys in four possessions and the Gators made six in a row to blow the game open.
About the Author
