Georgia talked a lot this week about getting better play out of guards Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann and taking better care of the basketball. The Bulldogs were good on both counts Wednesday night, scoring an impressive SEC road victory, 62-53 over Texas A&M.
The two junior guards both played huge roles in Georgia securing its third SEC road victory of the season. Gaines scored 15 points and beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer from the corner with 42 seconds to play to help the Bulldogs break open a tight game at the end. Mann was solid throughout, collecting four assists to go with zero turnovers while manning the point position much of the night and finishing with 14 points. He also made critical free throws down the stretch.
“Those guys played big tonight,” said Georgia coach Mark Fox, his voice barely audible from hoarseness. “We played a tournament team tonight and we took care of the ball. Charles Mann was really good, really, really good with the ball. And so were most of the guys around him.”
Four days after committing 11 of Georgia’s 20 turnovers against Tennessee, Gaines and Mann had one between them against Texas A&M. The Bulldogs had just seven as team.
The win was a big one for Georgia and puts a little more polish on its NCAA resume. The Aggies (16-7, 7-4 SEC) were one of four SEC teams ahead of the Bulldogs (16-7, 7-4) in the SEC standings. Georgia improves to 3-3 on the road in the SEC and 4-4 overall.
Gaines made the game-defining play. He’d sat for 6:40 after drawing his fourth foul with 10:40 remaining in the game and threw up an air ball (it may have been deflected) on his first 3-point attempt after returning. But with Georgia clinging to a four-point lead inside the final minute, Gaines nailed his second try. It left his hand with three seconds remaining on the shot clock and gave the Bulldogs a 58-51 lead with 42 seconds remaining.
Reed Arena fell silent.
“C-Mann put the ball right on the money and I just caught it and I was in rhythm,” Gaines said. “I had time and space and I just put it up and it went in.”
Poor shooting and foul trouble was the issue this time out. The Bulldogs shot just 25 percent from 3-point range (6-of-24) and missed nine in a row at one point. But the two they made in the second half were both huge.
After trading leads with over a six-minute stretch midway through the second half, Georgia finally pushed ahead when Taylor Echols nailed a 3-ball from the left corner with 7:36 to play. That was followed 48 seconds later by some nifty post work and a lay-up from Cameron Forte. That gave the Bulldogs an eight-point cushion they’d take into the final five minutes of the game.
“I thought that basket Echols made off the bench was key,” Fox said. “We were in serious foul trouble and needed that.”
With J.J. Frazier, Gaines and Mann all in foul trouble and already playing short-handed with Juwan Parker and Kenny Paul Geno still sidelined, Georgia’s bench was huge. The Bulldogs’ reserves outscored Texas A&M’s 12-2. Forward Yante Maten led the way with six points.
“This was a team win tonight,” Mann said. “We took care of the ball, we rebounded, we scored. We just did whatever was necessary.”
One thing that was consistent throughout was Georgia’s defense. It held the normally high-scoring Aggies to 40 percent shooting, 34.8 in the second half. Alex Caruso lead A&M with 20 points and Danuel House had 14 but the rest of the team was 8 of 23 from the field. The Bulldogs scored 15 points off 13 A&M turnovers.
“Georgia’s the best defensive team we’ve played besides Kentucky to this point,”Aggies coach Billy Kennedy said. “They contest everything. We were looking for things that were easy for us against Missouri and they weren’t there today.”
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