ATHENS — “Coach Abe” loves February. At least the Georgia head coach’s win-loss record says she does.
The Lady Bulldogs’ first-year coach – who almost never is referred to by her real name, Katie Abrahamson-Henderson – just saw her team lose to No. 1-ranked and undefeated South Carolina on the road by 10 points Sunday. Disappointing, sure, but then there is the context that it was only the fourth time in the past two seasons that one of her teams has lost a game in the season’s next-to-last month.
Georgia also lost its first game of the month in February. That was to No. 2-ranked LSU in Baton Rouge on Feb. 2. The Lady Bulldogs led that game for 25 minutes, including by nine points in the fourth quarter, before losing 82-77.
So, Georgia’s two losses in the past month came against the SEC’s top two teams that sport a combined record of 56-1 and likely will receive No. 1 seeds come NCAA Tournament time. It’s no wonder, then, that the Lady Bulldogs (20-10, 9-7 SEC) carry a considerable amount of confidence into this week’s SEC Tournament despite a rather-pedestrian No. 7 seed.
They’ll play 10th-seeded Auburn (15-13, 5-11 SEC) in the second round at 6 p.m. Thursday (SEC Network) at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C.
“I think it all just comes together for them,” Abrahamson-Henderson said of her teams playing well late in the season. “Everybody’s locked in right now, not just the starters, but the kid who plays the least amount of minutes. Me and my staff have been together for years and years, so our expectations are very high. We’re just focused on doing what we do.”
That mentality has served her well. She came to Georgia averaging 22 wins per season at Central Florida and Albany before that. But this is the first chance that Abrahamson-Henderson – a UGA letterman – has had to display her means and methods weekly in women’s basketball’s most formidable conference.
Understandably, it took a while to get going. Georgia lost five of its first seven SEC games of the season, including a painful loss in College Station to a two-win Texas A&M team coached by former Georgia coach Joni Taylor.
But the shaky start is a bit more understandable in the context of what the Lady Bulldogs were working with. It wasn’t a lack of talent as much as an unfamiliarity – and maybe some lack of comfort – with a new culture.
“In the beginning of the season, summer workouts, preseason workouts, in-season workouts, that plays a big part in ‘Abe’s’ culture,” said star guard Diamond Battles, a senior who came followed her coach to Georgia from UCF. “She takes a lot of pride in making sure we’re fit for the end of the season. She wants us to be fit in the beginning of the season, too. But it comes down to being ready to play multiple games back-to-back. You have to be physically fit, and you have to be mentally fit, and I think the mental part of our team has really grown stronger as we’ve fought through a lot of adversity.”
Battles is a big reason for that. The 5-foot-8 guard was named to the SEC’s all-defensive team and earned second-team All-SEC honors while doing do. Also, as a fifth-year senior who has played before for Abrahamson-Henderson, she serves almost as another assistant.
“Diamond’s pretty much a part of our coaching staff,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “We recruited her for a long time before she played for us for four years at UCF. So, this is nothing new to her.”
It’s that defensive emphasis that started to give opponents fits and flipped the script in February. Georgia employs an unusual style of defense all its own. Some describe it as a 3-2 or 2-3 zone, but the coach said it’s really not a zone at all. It’s man-to-man with intense on-the-ball focus.
Whatever one wants to call it, it has contributed to Georgia leading the SEC in steals (10.5 per game/315 total) and turnover margin (plus-4.0). The Lady Bulldogs have forced 20-plus turnovers in a conference-best 17 games, owning a 15-2 record in those contests.
Likewise, the Lady Bulldogs are winners of seven of their past nine entering the SEC Tournament. One of those was last week, 71-59 against Auburn.
“Now we’ve got to play them again, and I’m not thrilled about that,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “They’re good, and they play hard. (Aicha) Couliibaly is so good. She scored 20 points on us last time and almost had a double-double. She’s legit good. And they play really good, intense defense, too.”
Like Georgia, Auburn also employs a funky brand of defense that’s hard to prepare for and even harder to score against.
“It’s going be a low-scoring game, I guarantee it, unless we can break out in transition or get some put-backs and easy buckets,” Abrahamson-Henderson said.
History bodes well for Georgia doing just that. Abrahamson-Henderson’s teams have won 16 conference titles in her 17 years as head coach, including the American Athletic Conference title last year at UCF.
The SEC Tournament, though, is another animal. If the Lady Bulldogs get by Auburn, No. 2 seed and fourth-ranked LSU (27-1) awaits.
“We’ve gotta be focused on the next game, period,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “This is March, and this is March Madness. Nobody wants to go home, nobody wants to lose and everybody’s dangerous. The (record) is zero-zero, and we’ve got to be locked in.”
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