Guess who’s 4-1 in the SEC?
You’d be right if said the Georgia Bulldogs, who accomplished that feat with a 97-76 win over South Carolina Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
How unusual is a 4-1 start for the Bulldogs? They last time they did it was 2003. Georgia finished 19-8 and 11-5 in SEC play that year but had to vacate the victories due to NCAA violations
Georgia (10-7) will seek to keep the good times rolling on Saturday when it travels to Kentucky to take on the No. 14 Wildcats (14-4, 4-1). South Carolina falls to 7-11 overall and 0-5 in league play for the first time since 1999.
It was the highest scoring output of the season for the Bulldogs, who benefited from a sudden offensive boost from forward Nemanja Djurisic. The junior from Montenegro had scored just 11 points in the last three games combined but busted loose for a career-high 22 points on Wednesday. Djurisic was 6-for-6 from the field and 3-for-3 from 3-point range.
Djurisic was one of five Bulldogs in double figures, along with Kenny Gaines (14), Brandon Morris (13), Marcus Thornton (12), and Charles Mann (10). The Bulldogs shot 54 percent from the field and had a season-best 10 3s on 17 attempts. The 97 points was 35 above their season average in SEC play.
Unlike the Bulldogs’ other SEC wins, Wednesday’s came with relative ease. Georgia led by as many as 15 in the first half, was up 11 at halftime and quickly built on that in the second half.
The Bulldogs were still up 11 with 15:25 to play when a Donte Williams’ jump shot ignited a 11-0 run to double their advantage. The spurt ended when Djurisic made back-to-back 3-pointers, his second and third of the game. In the matter of 2:10, Georgia had built an insurmountable 64-42 lead with 14:15 to play.
Another highlight for the Bulldogs occurred in the midst of that stretch. Gaines blocked the 3-point attempt of Brenton Williams, gathered the loose carom, started a fast-break, then fed Brandon Morris for soaring jam. That ignited the previously sedate crowd and forced a South Carolina timeout with Georgia leading 57-42.
Georgia found itself leading by 11 despite somewhat pedestrian play in the first half.
The teams had played to a 6-6 tie early when the Bulldogs went on a protracted run that lasted more than seven minutes. At the end of it they led by 11, 27-16, and could have been up more had Cameron Forte made either of his foul shots at the 10:20 mark.
Fouls were the primary story in the first half. Georgia was in the double-bonus by the 9:55 mark and South Carolina wasn’t far behind. The teams combined to shoot 43 free throws in the first half, with the Bulldogs making 17 of their 22.
But the biggest difference for the Bulldogs was their long-range shooting. Entering the game last in the SEC in 3-pointers made per game (4.2), Georgia made 6 on 11 attempts in the opening stanza. And five different players got in on the act, with Gaines leading the way with two.
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