Georgia’s hopes of upsetting Kentucky took a hit when senior forward Marcus Thornton was ruled out of Tuesday’s game because he’s still recovering from a concussion.
The Bulldogs’ task became even harder when they started slowly against the top-ranked Wildcats and trailed by as many as 17 points. Georgia didn’t quit, rallying to within five points in the final two minutes, but faded to a 69-58 defeat at Rupp Arena.
Kentucky (22-0, 9-0 SEC) remained the lone undefeated team in the country. After winning five in a row in league play, Georgia (14-7, 5-4) has lost both games without Thornton, who was hurt during the Jan. 27 victory over Vanderbilt.
Fox said the Bulldogs were “disjointed” while losing at South Carolina on Saturday. Georgia also was out of sync early against the Wildcats, though Kentucky’s size, talent and depth had a lot to do with that.
The Bulldogs appeared rattled while falling behind 11-1 in the first four minutes.
“The start of the game was tough for us,” said Georgia senior forward Nemanja Djurisic, who scored a team-high 17 points “We came with more focus, more prepared in the second half. We were ready to compete in the second half. We played with poise, we played together. But definitely the first half is what got us.”
The Bulldogs got within 24-19 before closed the final six minutes of the half with an 18-8 run for a 42-27 lead at the break. After Kentucky extended the lead to 44-27 early in the second half, Georgia finally responded and clawed back to within 60-54 on Djurisic’s three-point play with 4:09 to go.
Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison scored on a layup and Aaron Harrison made a free throw to push the lead back to 63-54 with 3:16 left. The Bulldogs kept coming: Yante Maten answered with a short jump shot and Djurisic’s driving baseline score cut the lead to 63-58 with two minutes left.
Kentucky forward Karl-Anthony Towns scored near the basket as Fox chided officials for not calling a traveling violation on the play. After Djurisic missed an open 3-point attempt, Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis made two free throws to push the lead to 67-58.
Georgia’s J.J. Frazier followed with another missed 3-point try, and Andrew Harrison made two more free throws to secure the victory.
“I didn’t really think we played with much maturity in the first half,” Fox said. “We talked about calming down and executing. We didn’t change much (strategically). We just grew up.”
In addition to Thornton, Georgia was missing starting small forward Juwan Parker (Achilles) and his replacement, Kenny Paul Geno (wrist). The Wildcats were without 6-10 forward Trey Lyles (illness), but it hardly mattered with their wealth of size and talent.
Against South Carolina, the Bulldogs got little production from the players who absorbed Thornton’s minutes. This time Maten had 13 points and nine rebounds, and Houston Kessler scored seven points.
Kentucky visits Stegeman Coliseum on March 3.
“We can learn from this and hopefully next time beat them,” Georgia guard Charles Mann said.
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