Georgia’s furious finish in Florida was not enough for the Bulldogs to overcome a slow start and poor shooting performance, resulting in a 70-63 loss in Gainesville.
UGA guard Sahvir Wheeler scored the best of his career with 27 points (9 of 17 shots) and had 5 steals for the Bulldogs (13-9, 6-9 SEC), who lost 15 points with 3 1 / 2 minutes left against the Gators (11-6, 6-4).
Tye Fagan had 14 points from 6 of 8 shots and 6 rebounds for the team.
But the trio of graduates transferred from Georgia sucked at kicking the ball.
Justin Kier had 1 of 10 shots, PJ Horne had 0 to 5 shots and Andrew Garcia was 0 to 2. UGA, collectively, was only 4 out of 20 shooting beyond the 3-point arc.
Toumani Camara, Georgia’s best indoor player, was fouled at 8:27 left and the Gators won 53-40. Camara had 7 points, 5 rebounds and 4 goals in one of his toughest offensive matches.
“Having our three veterans score 1 of 17 (kick) and Toumani playing half the game with foul problems, and still having the chance to win in a two game possession ball, says a lot about what the guys were doing defensively, ”Said UGA coach Tom Crean.
“It’s not like those guys are trying to make mistakes…. our defense was keeping us there ”.
The Bulldogs also forced 20 turns in Florida, while committing only 12.
“The problem is that we scored just 17 points in these turns,” said Crean. “We should have scored 10 more points in those turns.”
Still, Georgia had its chances in the final minutes.
KD Johnson hit a 3-point ball to start an 11-2 run that brought the Bulldogs back to 66-60 on a Fagan drive to the edge with 1:31 remaining.
The Gators, however, took care of business on the free throw line to end the game, going to 4 of 4 in the final minute and a half, while the Bulldogs were unable to get close to 6.
Crean said the progress his team made in defeat, as invisible as it may seem, was how it played when the kicks were not falling.
“When we started our comeback, we had six consecutive stops,” said Crean. “The most important thing is that we defended when we were not shooting well and held them.
“We were defeated from the inside, but we continue to move in a good direction there (in defense) and that is what we have to continue to build on.”
Florida striker Colin Castleton, who was six feet tall, led the Gators with 14 points out of 7 out of 7 shots and had 3 of the team’s 7 blocks.
Florida led with 18 points in the first half before taking a 37-23 lead at the break, when Noah Locke hit a 3-point ball in the corner before the bell.
The Gators used a series of 9 to 0 to build their first double-digit lead in 16 to 6, while Georgia struggled to start well for the third time in the last four games.
The Bulldogs spent 9 1/2 minutes between goals, Camara scoring in the painting to reduce the lead to 25-12 and blow what had been a series of 10 consecutive missed shots.
Georgia didn’t connect with a 3-point hand until there was 1:10 left in the first half, when Fagan got it right, making Bulldogs 1 of 12 out of three in the first half.
Bulldogs return to action at 7pm on Tuesday against LSU. The Tigers defeated Georgia at Baton Rouge 94-92 on January 6, benefiting from a controversial off-limits decision that replays showed they should have followed the Bulldogs’ path.
LSU (14-6, 9-4), the SEC’s fifth consecutive team designed to play in the NCAA tournament on Georgia’s schedule, defeated Auburn 104-80 on Saturday at Baton Rouge.
