It was Senior Night at Stegeman Coliseum and that gave Georgia some bounce in its step as it opened play Wednesday against Florida. The Bulldogs made their first seven shots and flew out to a 19-6 lead.
But then there was a whole rest of the game to be played, and the home team wasn’t particularly sharp those other 35 minutes. The Gators didn’t take their first lead until the 11:45 mark of the second half, then held off a sloppy Georgia effort the rest of the way for a 68-54 victory.
Georgia coach Tom Crean, all but assured of missing NCAA tournament play for a second straight season, blamed it on poor defense.
“If Nike made 50-pound shoes, a couple of our guys had them on,” Crean said.
The Gators shot 54% in the second half, including 7-of-13 from 3-point range. Georgia would miss 26 of its last 39 shots after the hot start.
It was a somber way for the Bulldogs’ three seniors – and fabulous freshman Anthony Edwards – to go out in their final home game of the season. Tyree Crump, Jordan Harris and Donnell Gresham were recognized before the game.
Edwards was barely noticed.
What is expected to have been Edwards’ final home game as a college player was remarkably unremarkable. He took only 10 shots and didn’t make a third of them. He finished with 14 points, most of his scoring coming from the foul line in the final meaningless minutes. He also had three assists, three turnovers and three rebounds.
Edwards projects as a top-3 pick in the NBA draft in New York in June. But the 6-foot-5 guard from Atlanta insisted it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll leave. Based on last year’s draft, that would mean turning his back on a contract commanding about $20 million in guaranteed money.
“I don’t never look at it like it’s my last home game,” said Edwards, who came into the night as the nation’s top freshman scorer at 19.8 points per game. “Nobody ever knows what I’m doing, so I’ll just say that.”
With the Bulldogs (15-15, 5-12 SEC) now assured of being one of the bottom-four seeds in the SEC tournament and missing out on NCAA tourney play for a second straight season, Crean was asked if he considered it a “wasted year” with a generational player such as Edwards on the roster.
“I don’t look at it like that,” Crean said. “I knew we had 10 new players. See, I’m here every day and I know what we have. I know what we’re working with in the sense of what we have to build.”
The Bulldogs wrap up the regular season on the road Saturday at LSU. They’ll open SEC tournament play next Wednesday night in Nashville in one of the two “play-in” games.
With the double-figure win, Florida (19-11, 11-6) sweeps the season series and further enhances its NCAA tournament prospects. The Gators play host to Kentucky Saturday in their regular-season finale.
Keyontae Johnson led the Gators with 18 points and sophomore guard Noah Locke came off the bench to make three timely 3-pointers and finish with 17 points. Florida was 0-for-10 from behind the arc in the first half.
“Obviously when we’re shooting the ball from 3 at a high level we’re a totally different team,” said freshman Scottie Lewis, who broke the drought three minutes into the second half.
Rayshaun Hammonds had 12 for the Bulldogs, but only four in the final 35 minutes of play. The 6-9 junior also had seven of Georgia’s 16 turnovers. The three seniors combined for 11 points, Harris leading the way with seven.
Florida seemed to have all of the momentum from the end of the first half to midway through the second. But Edwards re-energized both his team and the sellout home crowd with a thunderous, one-handed, driving dunk from the left wing at the 8:53 mark. That brought the Bulldogs back to within one, and they’d regain the lead a minute later on a Tye Fagan layup off a Sahvir Wheeler feed.
But that would represent the beginning and the end of Georgia’s highlight reel. After taking that lead, the Bulldogs committed four consecutive turnovers, all of them on traveling calls. Florida scored after each one on the way to a 10-0, outcome-seizing run.
Hammonds’ fifth turnover came at the 5:30 mark and led to a driving dunk by Johnson, and Georgia would never threaten again.
The Bulldogs led 30-28 at halftime, but they worked pretty hard themselves to keep Florida in the game.
Georgia opened with an almost perfect start. Except for a missed free throw by Edwards, it was. The Bulldogs made their first five shots of the game – including two 3-pointers by Hammonds – and shot out to a 19-6 lead in the first five minutes of play.
But that was followed by nine consecutive scoreless possessions to let Florida take back some of the momentum. Runs are part of the game, but most of that was Georgia’s own doing through turnovers and ill-advised shots.
“We probably, for a little stretch there, started to think about our own offense, really, rather than thinking about how much it needed to move,” Crean said. “And that's the immaturity of this team that comes at times when we get a lead. We've got to grow through that. That's part of building the program.”
