It was a long, miserable stretch of the first half for Vanderbilt, thanks to Georgia’s suffocating defense.
The Lady Bulldogs used relentless defensive pressure and intensity to stagger the Commodores and went on to a 53-43 victory in their first game of the SEC women’s tournament at Gwinnett Arena.
“That’s the best I’ve seen us play defensively all year,” Georgia guard Khaalidah Miller said. “Vanderbilt is a really good team, and we did a good job of taking them out of their stuff.”
Ninth-seeded Georgia, which earned a bye on the tournament’s first day, advanced to Friday’s third round to face top-seed South Carolina (26-3). The Gamecocks, ranked No. 5 nationally, boast the SEC’s coach, player and freshman of the year in Dawn Staley, Tiffany Mitchell and Alaina Coates, respectively.
South Carolina clinched the league’s regular-season title with a 67-56 victory over Georgia in Columbia on Feb. 27. The Lady Bulldogs started 1-of-8 from the field and trailed 30-18 at halftime.
“South Carolina started with a run and it put us on our heels, and that lasted about five or six minutes,” Georgia coach Andy Landers said. “After that, the game was a game. Can we improve on our last performance? I certainly think so. So I am excited about playing them again. I look forward to it, and I think our players look forward to it.”
In its latest NCAA tournament bracket projections, ESPN tabbed Georgia (20-10) as a No. 9 seed in in the South Bend, Ind., region. If the Lady Bulldogs can keep playing defense as they did against Vanderbilt, they figure to be a tough out for the rest of the postseason.
Georgia held Vanderbilt to two field goals on 14 attempts over the final 14:12 of the first half. The Lady Bulldogs harassed the Commodores on the perimeter, swarmed their interior players and collected all but one of Vanderbilt’s missed shots.
That effort earned Georgia a 28-15 halftime lead. It was a season-low for points in a half for the Commodores, who missed 14 of 20 shots and committed seven turnovers.
“Defensively, I think that’s when a lot of things just came together,” Landers said. “We knew what we wanted to do to defend then. We started the game that way, but we had some cracks and some little breakdowns. I think after about 10 minutes, all five of our kids were on the same page and playing close to exactly the way we wanted.”
Miller, a senior, scored a team-high 12 points. Krista Donald had 19 points and eight rebounds, and Erika Ford scored 10 points.
Vanderbilt guard Christina Foggie, the SEC’s leading scorer, scored 16 points. She made 7 of 13 field-goal attempts, but the rest of the Commodores combined for only 10 field goals.
“Georgia came ready to play, and they worked really hard,” Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb said. “They dominated us on the boards (for 13 offensive rebounds). They were more physical, more aggressive. They earned this victory. They did a great job.”
The Lady Bulldogs avenged a 66-58 defeat at Vanderbilt in the SEC opener.
After shutting down the Commodores in the first half Georgia pushed its lead to 32-17 after halftime. When Vandy closed to within 32-24, Ford and Miller made 3-pointers, and Ford scored on a jumper to make the score 40-24.
Vanderbilt cut the deficit to 10 points four times in the final 3:23. Georgia made 5 of 8 free-throw attempts to seal the victory.
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