Georgia basketball surprises No. 13 Auburn and snaps four-game slide
This time, Georgia punched back.
The Bulldogs (13-13, 3-10 SEC) surrendered a nine-point first-half lead to No. 13 Auburn (22-4, 9-4 SEC). But Georgia answered with an 8-0 run of its own and held off every Tiger push in the second half to walk away with a 65-55 win Wednesday night in Stegeman Coliseum.
“We’ve got to be in the fight,” Georgia head coach Tom Crean said after the game. “We had to establish toughness tonight. We had to establish we were going to fight because we know Auburn does.”
After Auburn took a 23-22 lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, Georgia went to work. First, freshman guard Anthony Edwards gave his team the lead back with a 3-pointer.
Fellow freshman Sahvir Wheeler then scored the next five on a triple and a layup. In less than three minutes, Georgia had gone from down one to up seven, a stark contrast to the team’s trademark ability this season to give up leads in rapid time.
“Us coming together in the timeout and being like, ‘Hey, we’ve been through this a couple times now, we’re experienced now,’” Wheeler said of what allowed Georgia’s run. “We’ve figured out that if we talk to each other while they’re making that run, it’s calming us down, making us more poised.”
It was a balanced effort for the Bulldogs in the first half, as Wheeler and Edwards each had eight points and junior forward Rayshaun Hammonds led the team with 10.
“I tell him before every game, ‘Ray, nobody can guard you. You’ve just got to go out there and play hard,’” Edwards said. “Once he realizes that, no matter who you put in front of him, he’s going to score.”
That distribution continued through the second half. Four Bulldogs scored in double figures, with the quartet of Wheeler, Edwards, Hammonds and freshman forward Toumani Camara combining for 46 of Georgia’s 65 total points.
With a 31-25 lead at halftime, Georgia was tasked with doing something it had struggled mightily with in SEC play. It had built the lead — now it had to keep it. The lead grew to as large as 10 in the second half. Instead of blowing its fourth second-half double-digit lead of the conference season, the Bulldogs continued to respond to adversity.
Every time Auburn sliced into the lead, Georgia responded with a basket.
Crean said he decided to call more offense than usual in the second half in an effort to keep the ball moving and maintain good offense. This helped keep Auburn at arm’s length and kept the Bulldogs believing for all 40 minutes.
“I did not see us lose belief at any point in time tonight,” Crean said. “They were talkative in the huddles. There wasn’t, I’m fighting them to get their eyes on me type of stuff (in the huddles). We’ve had that. When we start to lose confidence, those eyes drop and it’s hard to get them back. We didn’t have any of that.”
The Bulldog defense also benefited the effort to hold the lead. The team entered allowing its opponents to shoot 45 percent from the field, but Georgia held Auburn to just 31 percent shooting for the game, including just 4-for-26 on 3-pointers. The undersized Bulldogs also fought to a draw in the rebounding battle, 45 boards apiece.
The Tigers also were unable to get to the free throw line, a hallmark of their offense. They entered attempting 28 foul shots per game on the season, but made just 9-of-13 attempts on Wednesday night.
Auburn drew as close as three points in the second half, but never any closer. The final dagger came from Edwards, whose team-high 18-point performance was capped by a 3-pointer with 2:15 to play to put the Bulldogs up 58-50.
Georgia then made enough free throws down the stretch to secure the win. After so many blown double-digit leads, the Bulldogs secured their third conference victory by double figures, toppling the Tigers 65-55.
As the horn sounded Edwards and his teammates ran to the student section in jubilant celebration. For Edwards, it was an expression of gratitude.
“We’ve been getting beat up, if that’s what you want to call it, but we went to the crowd, just telling them, ‘We can win some games, y’all stick with us. Y’all ride with us,’” Edwards said.
Auburn-Georgia basketball box score
AUBURN (22-4): Purifoy 0-3 2-2 2, Wiley 5-8 1-2 11, Doughty 5-17 4-5 15, Flanigan 1-7 1-2 3, McCormick 9-22 1-2 22, Cambridge 1-4 0-0 2, McLemore 0-5 0-0 0, Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Akingbola 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-68 9-13 55.
GEORGIA (13-13): Camara 1-5 10-12 12, Hammonds 5-8 1-3 13, Edwards 7-16 1-2 18, Harris 2-10 0-0 5, Wheeler 5-11 2-5 13, Peake 0-1 2-2 2, Crump 1-1 0-0 2, Gresham 0-2 0-0 0, Fagan 0-2 0-0 0, Howard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-56 16-24 65.
Halftime—Georgia 31-25. 3-Point Goals—Auburn 4-26 (McCormick 3-8, Doughty 1-6, Johnson 0-1, Williams 0-1, Cambridge 0-3, Purifoy 0-3, McLemore 0-4), Georgia 7-26 (Edwards 3-10, Hammonds 2-2, Harris 1-3, Wheeler 1-5, Fagan 0-1, Peake 0-1, Camara 0-2, Gresham 0-2). Rebounds—Auburn 42 (Wiley 10), Georgia 38 (Hammonds 8). Assists—Auburn 6 (Doughty 3), Georgia 12 (Wheeler 4). Total Fouls—Auburn 18, Georgia 12.
When is the next Georgia basketball game?
Who: Georgia at Vanderbilt
Where: Nashville, Tennessee
What time: 6 pm Saturday (EST)
What channel: SEC Network
When is the next Auburn basketball game?
Who: Auburn vs. Tennessee
Where: Auburn, Alabama
What time: Noon Saturday (EST)
What channel: CBS
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 9:01 PM.