Georgia working to improve perimeter defense after performance against Florida

ATHENS -- Florida wasn't, and still isn't, a good 3-point shooting team.

That's what was surprising about the way the Gators shot the ball in their 77-63 win over Georgia on Saturday. From the start of the game, Florida's shooters had open looks and drilled them, much to the surprise of the Georgia defense.

Kenny Gaines admitted Georgia got caught thinking of Florida as a poor 3-point shooting team.

And it's not like Gaines and the Bulldogs can be blamed for that, considering Florida entered Saturday's game shooting just 27.4 percent from behind the arc. The Gators hit 9-of-23 3-point attempts against Georgia, which was good for 40.9 percent.

Florida is now shooting 28.4 percent from behind the 3-point line, which is still last in the SEC.

With what transpired during the weekend, Gaines said he and his teammates should have give a better effort from the start defending the 3.

"That's something we've got to expect," Gaines said. "Teams can always beat their stats. We should have defended the 3 a little bit better. I guess we kind of played to their stats a little bit. We were a little hesitant of defending some of their shots. That's something we'll have to do better next time."

Georgia has done a fairly good job defending the long-range jumper this season. It ranks fourth in the SEC in 3-point defense, keeping teams to only 29.7 percent from the perimeter. But in Georgia's four losses this season -- against Chattanooga, Seton Hall, Kansas State and Florida -- that number jumps to 37.5 percent.

The first time Georgia had issues defending the 3 came in the season opener against Chattanooga, when the Mocs hit 12-of-30 attempts from long range. Georgia seemed to shore up the 3-point defensive issues until Saturday's loss, with it now being magnified given the opportunities Florida had.

Missouri, Georgia's opponent Wednesday, isn't a great 3-point shooting team either, but at least is better than Florida. For the year, the Tigers are hitting 33.6 percent of their 3-pointers, which ranks eighth in the SEC.

Freshman guard Turtle Jackson said Georgia's perimeter defense can be improved my simply hustling out to guard the shooters and prevent open looks.

"It's more hustle, like they say," Jackson said. "It comes from the heart. (Head coach Mark) Fox calls it the YMCA defense. It's you and the guy you're guarding. Make sure he doesn't score a basket."

Fox pointed out his team has done well on the defensive side of the ball this season. The Bulldogs rank second in the conference in overall field goal defense at 37.0 percent and have held teams to fewer than 70 points in eight of their 11 games.

Therefore it's tough for any coach or player to see a team shoot the lights out of the basketball in a conference opener the way Florida did. Fox said he has had his team do some work early this week to aid in this area moving forward.

"We have been a very good defensive team, and we did not guard the 3-point line well at all," Fox said. "Certainly we've looked at the tape and have talked about returning to some techniques and execution of some techniques that will help us there."

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Georgia working to improve perimeter defense after performance against Florida ."