Georgia rallies for road victory at LSU

Here are five thoughts and observations from Georgia’s 61-60 win over LSU.

Implications

Coming off consecutive losses for the first time this year, Georgia was hoping to turn the misfortune around with a couple of tough games this week.

LSU (11-6, 2-3 SEC) has been playing better of late and entered the NCAA tournament conversation. A road win against the Tigers, especially with another away test at Auburn Saturday, would go a long way for Georgia if it could get it done.

And the Bulldogs (12-5, 3-2) got the victory they needed. Down by 10 at the half, Georgia rallied to win 61-60. It got a go-ahead bucket from Yante Maten with 5.7 seconds left to play on a well-drawn play out of a timeout. The Bulldogs then executed well on defense on the ensuing possession to force a long and tough shot.

Georgia is on the bubble in most bracketologists’ fields. This win should momentarily move the Bulldogs back into those brackets heading into Saturday’s big test at Auburn.

Second-half energy

Georgia once again played an unenthusiastic first half on offense for the third consecutive game. Against Missouri, Georgia scores only 23 in the opening period. Against South Carolina it was 29. Tuesday against LSU, Georgia trailed 34-24 at halftime.

But Georgia caught fire and played with much more energy out of the gate to start the second half. Georgia used a 20-7 run to open the period to make it an even game throughout the duration. If Georgia could have played that way in the first half, perhaps this wouldn’t have been such a close game.

Moving forward, the Bulldogs must start games with the same sense of urgency it had when it came out of the break down 10.

Maten’s moment

Georgia has endured some heartbreakers over the past couple of seasons. And a lot of these kind of games have gone the other team’s way.

It was fitting for Maten, Georgia’s senior leader, to put in what would be the game-winner. LSU did a good job limiting Maten in the first half. But out of the locker room, Maten led the charge to get his team back in the game. It was capped with a tough game-winner from the senior forward.

Maten finished the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Ogbeide’s early offense

As it was previously stated, Georgia did not get out to a good start on offense. But one player kept LSU’s lead from getting too great.

While everyone else struggled, forward Derek Ogbeide went to work in the low post. He scored nine early points, with his team desperately needing them. The rest of the team picked things up in the second half, and Ogbeide wasn’t relied upon then.

But if it wasn’t for those early buckets from the junior, it would have been a lot tougher for Georgia to escape with a win. Ogbeide finished the game with 11 points.

Lineup change

Georgia went with a new lineup against LSU, with the likely hope of jump-starting its offense.

Freshman guard Teshaun Hightower earned his first career start and ran the point, with junior Turtle Jackson sliding to the two-guard position.

Hightower got the start ahead of E’Torrion Wilridge. Juwan Parker earned a start at the three, with Rayshaun Hammonds coming off the bench for the first time this season.

Bonus five

- LSU's star guard Tremont Waters came into Tuesday's game averaging 16.9 points per game. The Georgia defense held him to only six points in 29 minutes of action

- Georgia outrebounded LSU 38-27 and brought down 13 offensive rebounds. Of the 38 rebounds, the Bulldogs got 23 in the second half.

- While Georgia turned the ball over 10 times to LSU's five, the Bulldogs capitalized on each of the Tigers' giveaways. Georgia scored 10 points off of the five LSU turnovers.

- Free throws were an issue once again for Georgia. A game after a poor performance from the free-throw line against South Carolina, the Bulldogs went 9-of-16 against LSU.

- For the second consecutive game, Hammonds went scoreless. While he played 36 minutes against South Carolina, he only saw 14 minutes on the floor against LSU.

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Georgia rallies for road victory at LSU."