ATHENS – It’s almost over.
One of worst seasons in the history of SEC men’s basketball will end whenever Georgia loses in the SEC Tournament in Tampa. Odds are good that will be on Wednesday night when the last-place Bulldogs (6-25, 1-17 SEC) meet 11th-seeded Vanderbilt (15-15, 7-11) in the first round. Tipoff is scheduled soon after 12th-seeded Missouri and No. 13 Ole Miss wrap up the Game 1, which tips at 6 p.m. That’s expected to be about 9 p.m.
Georgia dropped its final regular-season game 79-69 to Missouri in Columbia on Saturday. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 16-2 lead and led 39-30 at halftime. But they were trailing by five points with three minutes remaining, then gave up four unanswered points. When Kario Oquendo missed both free throw attempts with the Bulldogs down six, the Tigers (11-20, 3-15) were able to seal the game from the foul line.
Senior Braelen Bridges led Georgia 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, Oquendo had 17 points and Aaron Cook added 16. The Bulldogs were outrebounded 43-24.
“We played hard; nobody’s backing off from playing hard,” Georgia coach Tom Crean said. As for the rebounding, he said, “Obviously, we don’t have a lot of time to figure it out, but there needs to be more competitiveness to fight on the glass.”
The last time the Bulldogs won only one conference game in a season was 1956 when they went 1-13.
Ten SEC teams have gone winless in conference play, with Vanderbilt being the last (0-18 in 2019). The Commodores were 9-23 overall that season. Georgia Tech went 0-14 in SEC play in 1953-54.
The 25 losses is the most in Georgia basketball and SEC history. The Bulldogs went 3-22 in 1951-52 and 3-21 in 1955-56. In all, UGA has lost 20 or more games seven times in 116 seasons. Crean also went 11-21 in his first season (2018-19).
Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss 63-61 in Oxford to snag the 11th seed. Vandy beat the Bulldogs twice in January, 73-66 in Athens and 85-77 in Nashville. They feature Scotty Pippen Jr., the SEC’s scoring leader this season (20.5 ppg).
Diamond Dogs rally
Georgia’s No. 14-ranked baseball team avoided a sweep at the hands of Georgia Tech on Sunday with a 12-3 win before 9,942 in the Coolray Field in Lawrenceville. The win gave the Bulldogs a 13-6 lead in the 19th annual Spring Classic For Kids.
The Yellow Jackets won the first two games in the series, 11-7 on Friday at Russ Chandler Stadium and 11-7 Saturday at Foley Field.
Garrett Brown got the start Sunday instead of Dylan Ross and threw three scoreless innings for the win. Parks Harber went 2-for-3 with a homer and drove in 4 runs and Corey Collins also hit a home run with 3 runs scored and 3 RBI.
Georgia (9-2) is back in action Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. against Georgia Southern at SRP Park in North Augusta, S.C. The two teams will play again Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Statesboro when it begins a two-game set with Georgia Southern. First pitch will be at 6:35 p.m., and then the series concludes on Wednesday in Statesboro with a 6 p.m. start.
Rounding up weekend
Georgia softball improved to 19-2 with a 10-2 win over Appalachian State, the men’s and women’s teams both defeated Mississippi State, with the No. 22-ranked men edging the No. 25 MSU in Starkville, and the Gym Dogs lost again, finishing fourth behind Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas in the Elevate the Stage meet in Huntsville, Ala.
The Lady Bulldogs basketball team (20-9) will find out on Sunday where they will end up in the NCAA Tournament. Georgia went down meekly to Alabama in second round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday. Projections have them as a No. 7 seed.
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