Bulldogs drop road matchup to No. 5 Auburn
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Bulldogs drop road matchup to No. 5 Auburn

Georgia-Auburn 2020
Photo: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Auburn, Ala. – The Georgia men’s basketball team was defeated by No. 5 Auburn 82-60 on Saturday afternoon at the Auburn Arena. The Bulldogs fall to 10-5 on the season, 0-2 in SEC play, while Auburn remains unbeaten on the season and a 3-0 record in conference competition.

Freshman Anthony Edwards led the Bulldogs in points with 18 points. While junior Rayshaun Hammonds had another impressive outing, notching a double-digit point performance with 12, as well as one rebound shy of a double-double. Sophomore Tye Fagan provided a nice spark off the bench, finishing with seven points and tying a career high in steals with two.

Freshman Sahvir Wheeler started his first game for Georgia this season and played 27 minutes finishing with six points and three assists, leading the Bulldogs in assists once again.

“We’re just getting started,” Head Coach Tom Crean said. “Now we’ve got to play Tennessee, then we go to Mississippi State, then we go to Kentucky. We proved we can win on the road with Memphis so that was great. We certainly had our moments against Kentucky, but the other thing is we didn’t capitalize on points, on turnovers during the game. Fifteen to four. It was ten to zero points on turnovers in the second half. We were turning them over, there were turnovers, but we weren’t capitalizing on it. I think we had six turnovers in the last twelve minutes of the Kentucky game that we didn’t capitalize on. Really good teams capitalize on the other team’s turnovers and we are not doing that. When we turn somebody over, we’ve got to go get that easy basket. Our lack of confidence when things weren’t going well, even in some point-blank ways like a free throw or a layup, hurt us on the other end of the floor. We’ve got to be able to grow and get out of that.”

The first half started all Bulldogs getting off to a 6-0 lead thanks in part to a couple field goals by Hammonds and freshman Toumani Camara and capped off with a three by Donnell Gresham Jr. Auburn began to claw at the lead but the Bulldog defense kept them in check for most of the first half. Auburn took their first lead of the game at the eight-minute mark after a 12-2 run and a drive by Samir Daughty, but Georgia quickly took it back after a three by Hammonds. After a back and forth affair, Auburn took control of the lead hitting six of their last seven shots. Freshman Christian Brown sank four huge free-throws to cut the Tiger lead to 11 going into the half.

Auburn would go on to maintain the lead for the rest of the game. A three-pointer from Hammonds got him in double digits scoring for the tenth time this season, 43rd of his career. As well as Edwards who had a layup to put him in double digits for the 12th time this season.

Auburn finished the day shooting over 50-percent from the field, defeating the Bulldogs 82-60.

Georgia returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 15 against Tennessee at Stegman Coliseum with tip off set for 7 p.m. and ESPNU providing television coverage before hitting the road to take on Mississippi State on Saturday, Jan. 18.

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