Georgia comes up short against Kansas State
ATHENS -- Georgia succeeded in the first half of its game against Kansas State on Friday with smart passing and disciplined defense with just five turnovers and five fouls through the game's first 20 minutes.
But Georgia (3-3) was unable to sustain either of those things in the second half, finishing with eight turnovers and 15 fouls in the second half to give the Wildcats (6-1) the 68-66 win.
Georgia saw shades of its struggles at the end of the first half. With 0.8 seconds remaining, senior forward Kenny Gaines delivered a huge block. But it was negated by a Houston Kessler foul that gave Kansas State two free throws, reducing Georgia's halftime lead by two to 37-28.
Kansas State sustained some of that and took its first lead of the game 6:39 into the second half. The remaining 13:21 of the game saw 12 lead changes, but Georgia fell with a missed last-second shot.
THREE WHO MATTERED
Yante Maten: Georgia's sophomore forward Maten finished with his third straight 20-point game. He also had five rebounds and three blocks.
J.J. Frazier: Georgia's junior guard's seven-point second half propelled him to an 11-point, four-rebound performance. Frazier now has 34 points in his past two games and has at least four rebounds in each of his past four games.
Gaines: Gaines led the Bulldogs in the first half with 13 points and finished with 17. Gaines struggled in the second half overall, though, going 1-for-4 from the floor with two turnovers. For a short period early in the second half, Georgia head coach Mark Fox benched Gaines, along with fellow senior guard Charles Mann.
TURNING POINT
Despite second-half struggles, Georgia was in the game all the way until the end. Following a Mike Edwards free throw to tie the game at 66, Kansas State drove the court and put the ball in the hands of freshman forward Dean Wade, who iced the game with a mid-range jumper with six seconds left on the clock.
OBSERVATIONS
Good Turtle, bad Turtle: With 9:49 left in the first half, William “Turtle” Jackson entered the game. The freshman immediately brought excitement to Stegeman Coliseum with a layup and a no-look assist to Maten in his first 1:10 on the court. But Jackson reminded everyone that he’s still a freshman about two minutes later with a turnover and a foul on the same play that gave Kansas State three easy points.
Frazier’s effort: Frazier might stand shorter than every Kansas State player at just 5-foot-10, but he managed a solid defensive effort in the loss. With 11:18 left in the game, Gaines missed on a 3-point shot, but Frazier worked his way into the paint and tipped it in for two. He then went on the defensive, pulled down a rebound, and dribbled up court for a layup that ended as a successful three-point play. Two more free throws about 30 seconds later single-handedly gave Frazier a 7-3 run over the Wildcats and helped keep Georgia in the game.
Second-half fouls: The first half included just 12 combined fouls between the two teams. But the officiating seemed to tighten in the second half, with the two teams combining for 31 fouls.
Questionable ending: When Frazier took the final shot from the 3-point line, it looked like the ball had a chance to go in. Butit looked as if Maten and a Kansas State player both went up for the ball. But it was not called, and the game ended. Although Maten said he was pretty sure Kansas State also touched the ball, but the play is not reviewable.
WORTH MENTIONING
Gaines nears 1,000: With his 17-point performance, Gaines is now just 11 points away from scoring his 1,000th career point. He would be the 46th Georgia player to reach the milestone.
Ogbeide sees action: Georgia freshman forward Derek Ogbeide got his first action of the season. Ogbeide was primed to see playing time this season but sustained a shoulder injury just before the start of the season. Ogbeide did not record any statistics and played about two minutes.
Fighting for rebounds: Kansas State outrebounded Georgia 36-35. Georgia drops to 1-3 on the season when outrebounded by its opponent.
THEY SAID IT
Fox on Georgia’s offensive performance: “A very, very poor start to the second half. Started with a questionable shot, a couple of offensive turnovers and never could regain a real offensive rhythm in the second half and at the end couldn’t get a stop and a rebound to win the game.”
Fox on the second-half officiating: “That is challenging, but both teams were in the same boat, there. We didn’t have the right response competitively.”
Fox on benching Gaines and Mann: “They know better than that, so I sat them down because they weren’t playing well.”
Fox on Ogbeide: “He was just cleared (Friday) at, gosh, a little before 2 o’clock. So I just wanted to get him 45 seconds here and there just to get him relaxed and so he’d been out there when we do get time to practice him and then play him.”
Maten on the final play: “It looked like it was kind of off from my point of view so he went up to go get it and I tried to go up and get it because he looked like he was about to touch it. There was a split second call for a ref. We’ve just got to live with it.”
Maten on second-half fouls and defense: “We just needed to be more aggressive than we were being. We were more on the lackadaisical side. We were just a little too chill on defense. We need to step it up. I keep saying, that’s how we’re going to win games, playing defense.”
Frazier on second-half turnovers: “We’re a disciplined team. Nothing that we do comes down to being undisciplined. We made habit passes and they were shooting their gap and they picked us up full court and made us work.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
Georgia hosts Winthrop at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Stegeman Coliseum.
This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Georgia comes up short against Kansas State ."