Washington eliminates UGA from NCAA tourney

A Trey Thompkins 3-pointer got the Bulldogs, who had trailed by eight with 36 seconds to play, within 67-65.  Then Washington's C.J. Wilcox made one free throw, but missed the second, with 3.7 seconds remaining to make the score 68-65. The game ended with Georgia's Travis Leslie missing a desperation 3-point attempt.

"Tried to throw up a lucky shot," Leslie said. "It just didn't fall."

Thompkins, who scored 15 points in the first half, finished with 26 for Georgia, matching his highest-scoring game of the season. He also had 11 rebounds. Leslie and Gerald Robinson had 12 points apiece.

The game might have been Thompkins' and Leslie's last for Georgia. Both juniors, they will decide in the coming weeks whether to enter the NBA draft. Both were noncommittal after Friday's game about what they will do.

Georgia held Isaiah Thomas, the most dangerous of Washington's many scorers, to four points in the first half, but he finished with 19.

Georgia coach Mark Fox said he spoke to his team after the game about the lessons of the loss and the season, which ended with a 21-12 record.

"What I shared with them was that, in basketball, once you understand the consequences of little things, you realize there are no little things," Fox said. "There were a lot of little plays that, when we go back and watch the tape, were extremely costly. As our team continues to grow and learn, we have to understand that.

"And then I addressed our season and the fact that this team has come a long way. I felt like all year that they would be good enough to compete and win in the tournament. We gave ourselves a chance. But losing in the tournament -- there should be no shame in that. We lost to a good basketball team, a well-coached team."

Washington entered the tournament averaging 83.5 points per game and Georgia 68.5. Georgia kept the pace of the game to its liking.

"We got the game like we wanted to," Fox said, "but we didn't defend well enough in the second half. We gave up [53.8 percent shooting] in the second half and didn't rebound it well enough."

Georgia led by as many as seven points in the first half -- 23-16 after a Thompkins 3-pointer with 5:52 remaining -- and was tied 28-28 at halftime. But in what proved to be the decisive stretch of the game, Washington went on a 17-5 run early in the second half.

One call during the run infuriated Fox: With Georgia down by three points, a follow jam by Leslie was ruled offensive goaltending. "That was a big momentum play there," Fox said. The Huskies seized the momentum.

"They're a team that scores in bunches," Thompkins said. "They came out in the second half and started knocking down shots."

Said Fox: "Our defense really wasn't nearly as effective to start the second half, so we dug ourselves a hole."

The Bulldogs never could quite climb out of it, coming closest in the final frenetic seconds.

A Thompkins layup with 35 seconds to play cut Washington's lead to six points, and a Dustin Ware free throw trimmed it to five.  After the Huskies missed a free throw, a Gerald Robinson layup got Georgia within 65-62 with 20 seconds remaining. Two free throws by Thomas put Washington back up by five with 14 seconds left, but Thompkins' 3-pointer got the Bulldogs within 67-65 with seven seconds left.

As Washington heads into Sunday afternoon's round-of-32 game against North Carolina, the Bulldogs head home.

"Being in the [NCAA] tournament is a blessing," Thompkins said late Friday night. "It's an experience that I feel like every ball player should have while they're in college."

Said Leslie: "It's an honor and a privilege. Everyone wants to make the tournament. You're here for a reason, and there's a lot of good teams here. Tonight just didn't go our way."