Written by Adrian Beecher
Athens, GA – After a fast start by the Bulldogs early on, Kentucky flexed their muscles down the stretch, turning a 4 point halftime lead into a 69-49 win over Georgia on Tuesday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
Kentucky won the tip to take the first possession of the game, however, after back to back missed jumpers, the Bulldogs got to work. Derek Ogbeide started off what was early domination in the paint with a dunk.
This was one of five straight dunks for the Bulldogs to start the game, as they opened up an 11-6 lead early on in the first period. Ogbeide led the charge with 7 of those points.
“Can you imagine that. Again, it was two guys on our team not talking, getting beat and all of the sudden, ‘I am like wait a minute, we gave them five dunks, is this going to be a 100-point game?” said Kentucky head coach John Calipari of his reaction of Georgia’s early momentum.
However, Calipari’s concerns would soon dissipate as a 7-0 run would give the Wildcats their first lead of the game at 13-11. This run would be silenced momentarily with a triple from Nicholas Claxton of UGA. Then came another run from the Wildcats at 7-1, to take a 20-15 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the first half.
Lead changes ended for the final 10 minutes of the first half and the Wildcats would maintain on top. However, they were never able to pull away, only extending their lead back to 4 at the end of the 1st half after the Bulldogs tied things up twice down the stretch.
Ashton Hagans and PJ Washington led the scoring drive for Kentucky’s 35-31 lead at the half, with 8 points each. For the Bulldogs, after Ogbiege’s strong start, it was Claxton finishing strong for UGA, leading the team with 9 points.
To get the 2nd half started, Hagans drained a triple to give the Wildcats a 38-31 lead, one that would only increase. As we reached the under 16-minute timeout, UGA had yet to score a point in the second and Kentucky had pulled out to a 44-31 lead. in fact, the Bulldogs had turned the ball over 3 times in the first four minutes of the half.
UGA would finally get on the board in the second half after Rayshaun Hammons was fouled on a three-point attempt and made two of three shots to end the bleeding. This would be followed up by a tip-in from Hammons to make it 44-35 with 14:31 left to play.
After another free throw from the Bulldogs, a triple from Jemari Baker would put the Wildcats back up by 11. However, UGA answered back with a triple from Tyree Crump, as they did what they could to stay in this one.
Those efforts, however, would be all for not as Kentucky started to pull away. The Bulldogs effort failed to correlate in the stat card as well, as they shot just 19.2% in the 2nd half. They also failed to find penetration in the lane and near the rim as they accumulated just four points in the pain in the second half.
The Wildcats would run away with this one, outscoring Georgia 34-18 in the 2nd half for a 20 point victory over the Bulldogs. Hagans led the way for Kentucky with 23 points and 3 steals.
UGA’s dismal 4 of 27 shooting performance beyond the arc was their second worst of the season, having only shot worse in the Tennessee shellacking three games prior, where they shot just 5.0%.
Early on we scored around the bucket and then we weren’t nearly as good scoring around the bucket. They are really good, we missed a lot of open shots.” said UGA Head coach Tom Crean. He then emphasized the need for the Bulldogs to grow up as a team, ” Out of anything basketball-wise, our maturity and mental toughness and has got to pick up when things are not going well for us.”
