Georgia basketball wastes yet another second-half lead. 6 observations from loss to Alabama

The sun rose, the sky remained blue, and Georgia blew another double-digit lead in the second half.

All three of these things happened on Saturday, as the Bulldogs (12-11, 2-8 SEC) relinquished a 12-point halftime lead in a 105-102 overtime home loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide (13-10, 5-5 SEC).

“We’ve got to learn how to win,” head coach Tom Crean said. “You get in these situations like the other day or Missouri, and we came back against Florida. We let Missouri back in it. We’ve just got to bear down. We’ve got to have leadership on the court emerge. It doesn’t matter if they’re 18 or if they’re 22.”

Even after losing the advantage, the Bulldogs rallied and sent the game to overtime on the strength of a game-tying bucket from junior Rayshaun Hammonds with 21.6 seconds left to play.

However, the Tide outscored the Bulldogs 13-10 in overtime to come out with the victory.

The visitors from Tuscaloosa led by as many as eight in the first half. However, Georgia grabbed a 12-point lead by opening the second period on a 24-8 run.

But as we’ve seen three times in the past four games, even a double-digit lead wasn’t enough, as Alabama erased the deficit over a handful of minutes and held off the home team in overtime to lock down the win.

Here are six observations from the game:

Georgia drops another second half lead

It seemed as if Georgia was in control. After trailing 45-41 at halftime, the Bulldogs opened the second half on a 24-8 run to seize a 65-53 lead with 14:44 remaining in the game.

But if there’s one thing this team is proficient at, it’s squandering leads. The 12-point lead transformed into a one-point deficit in just 3:39.

“That’s something we’ve been trying to work on as a team,” freshman guard Sahvir Wheeler said. “I think earlier in the year, we were trying to come back from leads. Now that we’re noticing that we can get leads, now it’s learning about protecting a lead. We’re just getting better day by day.”

The Bulldogs still hung in the game, eventually pulling it back to an even 83-83 with 3:31 left to play and eventually sending the game to overtime. But once again, a failure to protect a lead cost the Bulldogs a potential victory.

Bulldogs struggle to defend the drive and in paint

Georgia head coach Tom Crean has mentioned several times in recent weeks that his team needs to improve at defending the dribble and stopping penetration into the paint.

Alabama must have been listening, because it exploited that weakness on Saturday.The Crimson Tide racked up 56 points in the paint, just decimating a Georgia team lacking in size. Time after time an Alabama player drove into the lane and finished at the rim, leaving Crean with nothing to do but shake his head and watch.

As Crean noted after the game, this is far from the first time Georgia has struggled to guard the dribble. He listed several factors in play with this issue, including a lack of size, poor communication and not having that singular lockdown defender that can stifle an opposing team’s possession.

“We’ve got to have a commitment to it when they’re on the floor, first or second half, of just not letting the dribble by us,” Crean said. “We break our technique, like I said our communication’s not as good in those situations, and it hurts us.”

The Bulldogs had success of their own in the paint, racking up 58 points down low. But the lack of interior defense both allowed Alabama to get a lead in the first half and to mount a comeback in the second.

When needed, Georgia fails to get stops in second half

To say the Georgia defense was porous after halftime in the last game against Florida would be an understatement. The Gators scored 55 points and shot 60 percent in the final 20 minutes, erasing a 22-point deficit.

Against Alabama, it was more of the same in the second half. The Bulldogs surrendered 60 points and 51 percent shooting in the second half and overtime.

They also allowed the visitors to shoot 24 free throws after intermission. Alabama made 18, just enough to hang on for the three-point win.

Kira Lewis, Jr. dominates for the Tide

Crean praised Alabama guard Kira Lewis, Jr., in interviews on Friday, calling him one of the fastest players in the nation. On Saturday, Lewis proved him right.

He led all scorers with 37 points on 12-of-21 shooting. He was at the forefront of Alabama’s bombardment of the paint, as he constantly drove past defenders for layups at the basket.

“We couldn’t really switch it because he would just iso and try to blow past our big dude,” Edwards said. “Their coach was just spreading the floor and we couldn’t really help because they can shoot the ball really well. Everybody on the floor can shoot from the five to the one.”

When he wasn’t scoring, he was making things happen for his teammates. He chipped in seven assists and added five rebounds as well. Crean knew he would be a tough player to stop, and Lewis indeed proved to be a one-man wrecking crew.

Anthony Edwards held in check

Freshman guard Anthony Edwards had been hot as of late, scoring at least 23 points in three straight games. The Crimson Tide, however, was able to keep him under wraps for the most part.

He recorded just four points in the first half. For the game, he finished with 14 points on an inefficient 5-of-17 shooting. However, he was able to contribute a team-high 12 rebounds.

The star freshman revealed after the game that he’s been dealing with the flu. He didn’t practice at all on Friday and still didn’t feel his best on Saturday, no doubt contributing to his slow game.

“Today when I came out, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get any lift on my shot or play too many minutes,” Edwards said. “But when we went into overtime, I knew he wasn’t going to take me out so I had to dig deep and try to find energy. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to score like that, so I was trying to rebound a lot.”

Edwards received plenty of help, as two other Bulldogs — Wheeler and Hammonds — scored at least 20 points and the team notched its highest-scoring game of the season. But still, the superstar freshman didn’t have one of his better games.

Sahvir Wheeler notches career high

With Edwards not quite finding the rhythm, someone had to step up for Georgia offensively. That role was filled by the freshman guard Wheeler, who had the best offensive night of his college career.

He ended the night with a career-high 24 points, including taking five 3-pointers and making three of them in a display of confidence in his outside shot. Most of his work, however, was done finishing around the rim.

“When you see the results in the gym pay off, it’s not good enough yet because we didn’t get the win, but I felt pretty good,” Wheeler said. “I’m looking forward to using this to get on a little winning streak at the end and hopefully my teammates come along with me.”

It wasn’t enough to pull out a win, but Wheeler continues to show why he is one of the cornerstone pieces of this program for the rest of this season and in years to come.

This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 9:03 PM.