NEWS
The Georgia Bulldogs wasted a good first half performance in an 80-68 loss to the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats.
Jeremy Price came off of the bench to provide a spark with 19 points and Trey Thompkins added 12.
The Bulldogs saw a four-point halftime deficit get away from them, and the final score is not indicative of the rout that took place in the second half.
It’s a disappointing loss for Georgia, but they will go into the SEC tournament as one of the most dangerous teams.
They have played well in spurts down the stretch but have just struggled to close out potential victories.
Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 7:51 pm by steve · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
Nine times, the Georgia Bulldogs have hit the road this season looking for a victory. Nine times, the Dogs have been denied.
Perhaps their luck away from Stegeman Coliseum will change on Thursday, when Georgia travels to face a team it’s already beaten this month.
Georgia heads to Nashville to face No. 20-ranked Vanderbilt, in a game that on the surface looks like it heavily favors the Commodores. Vandy is 20-6 overall on the season, 9-3 in the SEC and in second place in the SEC East, two games behind Kentucky.
But the Dogs, who at 4-8 in conference play are last in the East, weren’t deterred by Vandy’s standing on Feb. 6 in Athens, when Georgia handed the Commodores a 72-58 defeat.
Any chance Georgia has of snagging its first road win of the season rest with the two-pronged attack of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie. Thompkins leads the Dogs in scoring at 17.6 points and rebounding at 8.2 boards per contest. Leslie is averaging 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
After the trip to Nashville, Georgia closes the regular season with home games Saturday against Florida and next Wednesday against Kentucky, and a road contest March 6 against an LSU team that’s winless in the SEC this season.
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 5:23 am by bud · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
Typically this season, the Georgia Bulldogs have been the one blowing a lead in the second half. But on Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum, it was the Dogs storming back up the hill in the second half.
Trey Thompkins and his teammates went off in the final 12 minutes, the Dogs rallying from a 52-39 deficit to take a 76-70 victory.
Thompkins led the way with 21 points and 17 rebounds, 14 of his points coming in the final nine minutes as Georgia improved to 11-3 at home this season.
Georgia (12-13, 4-8 Southeastern Conference) earlier blew leads in the second half against Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and South Carolina. But not this time. Shooting 54 percent from the floor, the Dogs pulled away down the stretch.
The Dogs finish the regular season with two road games, at Vanderbilt Thursday and at LSU on March 6, and a pair of home games, against Florida on Saturday and against Kentucky on March 3.
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Monday, February 22, 2010 at 8:21 pm by bud · No Comments
The Georgia Bulldogs came up short in their upset bid of the No. 18 Tennessee Volunteers, 69-60.
Georgia turned in a strong defensive performance in the first half and took a five-point lead into halftime.
The second half was a totally different story, as the Bulldogs gave up 45 points to the Volunteers.
Georgia could not handle Tennessee’s renewed interest in pounding the ball inside, which is where most of the points came from in the second half.
Trey Thompkins had a monster game for Georgia, finishing with 25 points, 10 rebounds and a block.
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 5:14 pm by steve · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
This time, the Georgia Bulldogs blew a big lead in an SEC game at home.
Up by 15 points at the half following a dominant 20 minutes against Arkansas on Wednesday at Stegeman Coliseum, Georgia flat out fell apart in the second half. The Hogs roared back with a 26-8 run to open the second half, and hit their free throws down the stretch to hand the Dogs a bitter 72-68 loss.
The Dogs (9-11) fall to 1-6 in SEC play. In five of the six losses, Georgia either held a big lead at halftime or lost a lead inside the final minutes.
Trey Thompkins led Georgia in scoring with 21 points. Travis Leslie scored 14, Dustin Ware added 11 and Jeremy Price scored 11 off the bench.
Georgia hit just two shots from the field in the first 10 minutes of the second half, opening the door for Arkansas to get back into the game.
The Dogs play host to Vanderbilt on Saturday.
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Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 8:02 pm by bud · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
An all-too-familiar theme reappeared for the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday.
Get a second-half lead against an SEC opponent. Let said lead slip away down the stretch. Walk off the court with another conference loss.
That’s what happened to the Dogs Saturday in Columbia, S.C. Devan Downey scored 12 of his 33 points in the final 10 minutes, Georgia letting a nine-point lead get away as the Gamecocks won 78-77.
The Dogs (9-10, 1-5 SEC) have led inside the final 10 minutes in four of their five SEC losses. This one was particularly painful, because the Dogs had their chances.
Downey hit the go-ahead basket with 50 seconds left. With 3.5 seconds left, Dustin Ware stood at the free-throw line for Georgia. But he missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Gamecocks got the rebound.
Travis Leslie led the Dogs with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Trey Thompkins added 18 points, and Ricky McPhee continued his good work offensively with 12 points.
The Dogs return home for three of their next four SEC games, starting with a Wednesday contest with Arkansas at Stegeman Coliseum.
Benedict with the whistle: For Georgia fans who also are longtime Atlanta Braves’ fans, a note of interest: One of the officials calling Saturday’s Georgia-South Carolina game was former Braves catcher Bruce Benedict.
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Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 10:46 am by bud · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
This time last week, the Georgia Bulldogs were about to win their first Southeastern Conference contest of the Mark Fox era, bashing eighth-ranked Tennessee in a big upset at Stegeman Coliseum.
This Saturday, the Dogs travel to face a team that also owns a big upset win in recent days.
Georgia travels to South Carolina to face a Gamecocks’ team that handed top-ranked Kentucky its first loss of the season on Tuesday. One day later, the Dogs were handled 87-71 at Florida.
The duo of Trey Thompkins (17.3 points, 7.9 rebounds) and Travis Leslie (13.8 points, 6.6 rebounds) has sparked the Dogs this season. In facing South Carolina, a team averaging seven more points per game than the Dogs (74.5 to 67.5), Georgia will need more big play from its T-n-T combination.
Ricky McPhee scored 21 points in the loss to Florida. Thompkins led the way with 24, and Leslie scored 11.
After the trip to Columbia, Georgia returns home for three of its next four, starting Wednesday against Arkansas. All four are SEC contests.
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Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 2:04 pm by bud · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
The residual feel-good high surrounding the Georgia Bulldogs’ basketball program continued Monday.
Two days after the Bulldogs grabbed the nation’s attention by blowing out No. 8 Tennessee at Stegeman Coliseum, guard Travis Leslie was named Southeastern Conference player of the week.
The high-flying Leslie helped fuel Georgia’s 78-63 upset of the Vols, a game the Dogs led by as many as 24. Leslie scored 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, pulled down nine rebounds and added seven assists.
On the season, Leslie is averaging 13.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. His overall improvement on both ends of the floor has helped the Dogs start the season 9-8. Even in losses in their first three SEC games, the Dogs were competitive, holding the lead in the second half in all three of those defeats.
Georgia travels to Florida to face the Gators on Wednesday. Saturday, the Dogs play at South Carolina.
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Monday, January 25, 2010 at 9:15 pm by bud · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
Mark Fox walked calmly toward the locker room, a brief point to the stands and a fist-bump to a well-wisher his only displays of emotion.
But all around him, sold out Stegeman Coliseum teetered on the verge of bedlam.
The Georgia Bulldogs finally put two halves of solid basketball together Saturday, and the result showed the promise the Dogs are showing in their first year under Fox. Georgia snapped a 10-game losing streak to Tennessee, giving Fox his first SEC victory with a 78-63 triumph over the No. 8-ranked Volunteers that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
The Dogs raced to a 14-4 lead and never looked back. The Vols closed to within 12 early in the second half, and certainly Georgia fans were wondering if this one would follow the script of the Dogs’ first three SEC games, all losses during which the Dogs led in the second half.
No worries on this day, though. With the Stegeman faithful at full lather from start to finish, Georgia stomped on the accelerator, leading by as many as 24 in the final 12 minutes before UT made the final score more respectable at the finish.
Trey Thompkins led Georgia with 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting, connecting on three 3-pointers. Travis Leslie hit eight of his 11 shots, scoring 19 to go with nine rebounds and seven assists. Ricky McPhee added 11 and Dustin Ware scored nine.
The Dogs shot 56 percent from the floor, and on the other end harassed Tennessee into 42 percent shooting. The Vols missed on 13 of their 16 3-pointers.
Georgia hadn’t beaten Tennessee since February 2004. The Dogs travel to Florida on Wednesday, then return home to play host to South Carolina next Saturday.
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Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 6:30 pm by bud · No Comments
By Bud L. Ellis
The effort has been there for the Georgia Bulldogs this basketball season, even if the results don’t show as much as the Dogs would hope.
Currently last in the SEC’s Eastern Division and one of just three teams in the conference without an SEC victory, the Dogs nonetheless have shown plenty of fight and grit in starting the season with an 8-8 overall record.
Since upsetting in-state rival and nationally ranked Georgia Tech on Jan. 5, the Dogs are 0-3, all three defeats coming in SEC action to Kentucky, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. But Georgia lost those three contests by a combined total of 15 points, leading in the second half at nationally ranked Kentucky, leading nationally ranked Ole Miss at home, and holding a double-digit lead late at Mississippi State.
So it goes with a young team. Learning to close out games is part of the growth process, and first-year Georgia head coach Mark Fox is imploring patience as his team matures.
The Dogs have most of this week off, before welcoming in Tennessee on Saturday. The Vols (14-2, 2-0) are ½ game behind Vanderbilt in the SEC East, and have won six games in a row. It won’t be an easy task for the Dogs, but even though the results haven’t born out any conference victories yet, the Dogs have taken the fight to the opposition each and every time.
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Monday, January 18, 2010 at 8:25 pm by bud · No Comments
