Bulldogs bullied, plus more observations from Georgia loss to South Carolina

A season full of low points found another one Wednesday night.

Georgia (12-12, 2-9 SEC) had one of its worst offensive performances of the season in Stegeman Coliseum against South Carolina (15-9, 7-4). After scoring 102 points against Alabama, the Bulldogs failed to break 60 in a blowout 75-59 loss to the Gamecocks.

“Every night in this league, it’s a fight,” head coach Tom Crean said afterward. “It doesn’t matter who it is, it doesn’t matter what night, it doesn’t matter what venue, every night is a fight. When you’re not ready for that fight, you’re not ready to get involved in that fight, this is the outcome.”

Georgia fell into a deep hole early, trailing 27-5 at one point in the first half before cutting the deficit to 38-20 at halftime. The home team made several attempts at a rally in the second half that all proved to be in vain, as South Carolina kept the Bulldogs at arm’s length en route to the easy win.

Here are six observations from the game:

Bulldogs stifled on offense in first half

Ugly doesn’t begin to describe Georgia’s first half offensive performance against the Gamecocks.

The Bulldogs went nearly four minutes before their first point, coming on a made free throw from senior guard Jordan Harris. They waited until the 12:50 mark of the first half for a made field goal, an and-one layup from junior Rayshaun Hammonds to cut the score to 13-4.

“It got physical at the very beginning,” Crean said. “They stood us up and we stopped cutting as much, got our heads down because we weren’t scoring.”

Georgia went to the locker room with just 20 points, its lowest total in any half this season. The team made just 6-of-25 shots (24 percent) and missed all 11 attempts from 3-point range.

“Too many times, we got in the paint rather than make the next kick,” Crean said. “(South Carolina was) just dropping off the bigs constantly to go to block shots or be at the rim. Keep the ball alive, make one more pass.”

The offense showed some semblance of life in the second half, shooting at a 44 percent clip after intermission. But the first half slump dug a hole that proved too large to overcome.

Turnovers lead to USC points

As if the shooting struggles in the first 20 minutes weren’t enough, the Bulldogs also couldn’t hang on to the ball.

They committed 11 turnovers in the first half, with five coming from freshman forward Toumani Camara. The giveaways resulted in 16 Gamecock points off turnovers, nearly matching Georgia’s total first half points.

The visitors didn’t exactly put on a ball handling clinic either with eight turnovers in the first half. However, Georgia got just two points off those mistakes, failing to capitalize and potentially stop the offensive bleeding.

The disparity only grew in the second half. The final numbers told the story: 25 South Carolina points stemming from 19 Bulldog giveaways, the second-highest total committed by Georgia in SEC play.

Georgia front court neutralized offensively

When Georgia did put points on the board, very rarely did they come from a big man.

Just two of the 20 first half points came from a forward, with the only basket being Hammonds’ and-one that served as the first made field goal of the game. Hammonds, Camara and freshman Mike Peake combined to shoot just 1-for-6 in the first half.

It didn’t get much better after the break, as the frontcourt registered just seven points on 3-of-12 shooting overall in the loss

Same old story: Bulldogs get bullied

It’s a song that has been played on repeat for most of this season: Georgia simply got outmuscled in the paint.

It started early, as South Carolina scored its first eight points down low. The Gamecocks also threw down several ferocious dunks after driving by Bulldog defenders.

The first half points in the paint disparity stood at 22-8 in favor of the Gamecocks. Things evened out a bit there after halftime, but it remained a physical mismatch.

The same could be said of the rebounding battle. South Carolina pulled down 25 first half boards compared to Georgia’s 15, and it won the battle 45-33 over the course of the entire game.

He’s not Bill Murray, but head coach Tom Crean surely had to feel like it was Groundhog Day as he watched his team get crushed down low.

“We played like a very young, non-physical team tonight,” Crean said. “We can’t walk into the game and say, ‘OK, we’re as physically big as this team, we have what they have up front.’ We don’t right now, we don’t have that. But we still have to be able to be in a situation where we’re aggressive and we’re in a fight.”

No love from deep

Crean’s offense is built on tempo, which often leads to a larger number of 3-point attempts. That wasn’t the problem for Georgia on Wednesday night: Making deep shots proved to be an arduous task.

The Bulldogs made just three of their 24 3-point attempts for the game, just one more than its fewest number of made triples in a game this season. This includes a first half in which they misfired on all 11 shots from behind the arc.

“If we’re open, you’ve got to shoot it,” Harris said. “If you’re in a slump, there’s no way you can get out of the slump if you don’t shoot the ball. You’ve just got to keep shooting every open shot you get.”

Crean has said many times that Georgia isn’t where it needs to be shooting the ball. That was never more evident than the deep shooting performance against the Gamecocks.

Rayshaun Hammonds vanishes again

Hammonds appeared to have broken out of his recent slump with a 20-point performance in Georgia’s most recent game against Alabama. But against South Carolina, one of the team’s most talented and experienced players disappeared again.

He finished the evening with just five points on 2-of-6 shooting, and he added just three rebounds. The team’s second-leading scorer made just one shot in each half, failing to step up as his team struggled to put the ball in the basket.

That proved to be a theme for most of the Bulldogs on Wednesday, as one of the season’s worst offensive performances led to a blowout loss.

Box score: South Carolina 75, Georgia 59

SOUTH CAROLINA (15-9): Bryant 4-5 4-4 12, Frink 1-1 1-4 3, Kotsar 5-12 1-2 11, Couisnard 5-13 1-1 14, Lawson 7-10 4-5 20, McCreary 4-8 0-3 8, Hannibal 2-7 0-0 4, Bolden 1-6 0-0 3, Moss 0-1 0-0 0, Leveque 0-1 0-0 0, Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, Nelson 0-0 0-0 0, Green 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-65 11-19 75.

GEORGIA (12-12): Camara 0-4 0-0 0, Hammonds 2-6 1-4 5, Edwards 4-13 8-8 16, Harris 4-6 2-2 10, Wheeler 1-6 2-4 4, Crump 2-5 2-2 8, Fagan 2-6 2-2 6, Gresham 2-3 3-4 8, Peake 0-1 0-0 0, Howard 1-1 0-0 2, Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Etter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 20-26 59.

Halftime—South Carolina 38-20. 3-Point Goals—South Carolina 6-17 (Couisnard 3-6, Lawson 2-4, Bolden 1-4, Anderson 0-1, Hannibal 0-1, Moss 0-1), Georgia 3-24 (Crump 2-4, Gresham 1-2, Brown 0-1, Camara 0-1, Peake 0-1, Fagan 0-2, Hammonds 0-2, Harris 0-2, Wheeler 0-2, Edwards 0-7). Rebounds—South Carolina 41 (Frink 9), Georgia 31 (Howard 6). Assists—South Carolina 17 (Couisnard 4), Georgia 9 (Hammonds, Wheeler, Peake 2). Total Fouls—South Carolina 20, Georgia 16.

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 8:44 PM.