Tom Crean wanted his Georgia basketball team to attack Auburn on Tuesday night, and the Bulldogs responded.
“We believe we would come here and compete,” said Crean. “We were very focused, we had good energy and we were stuck”.
Georgia (11-6, 4-6) took a 10-2 lead at Auburn (10-9, 4-6) and never lost, scoring a 91-86 victory in their first win at The Plains in four years. .
“Georgia has really good guards who can beat you to the brink,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “We play well in your hands. That’s exactly how we knew that Georgia could beat us.
“We didn’t give them to them, they deserved it. Georgia won the victory tonight. “
Tye Fagan scored the first seven points of the game and led the Bulldogs with 16 points, and Toumani Camara recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds
It is the Bulldogs’ fourth win in their last six games, and it happened in a game where they were losing by nine points.
UGA guard Sahvir Wheeler had 13 points and 7 assists, PJ Horne had 13 points and freshman KD Johnson had 12 points and Justin Kier 11.
“It was a team victory,” said Crean. “We had five guys scoring double digits and Andrew Garcia had 9 (points).”
Georgia beat Auburn by 40-32, registering a streak of seven consecutive league games in which they were defeated by the rebound.
“We have to be a gang recovery team,” said Crean. “We have to be quick, we have to hit first, we have to get into position and be in the offensive glass.”
SEC Network analyst and former SEC Network analyst and former NBA veteran Jim Sundvold said it was a different team from Georgia than what he saw beat Ole Miss 71-61 last Saturday.
“The difference is in the quality of the shots and the layups around the edge,” said Sundvold. “It is how aggressive they have been attacking.”
Crean said that before the game his team would need to be resilient, and the Bulldogs proved just that, reversing the Tigers every time Bruce Pearl’s team tried to rally.
Auburn made seven of his first eight shots in the second half to reduce Georgia’s lead to three, 49-46, after the Bulldogs maintained a nine-point lead at halftime.
But Fagan and Camara were there to respond with baskets, and the Tigers were unable to get closer than three by the end of the match.
Georgia led with 15 points in 69-54, when Andrew Garcia crowned a 9-0 streak with a tray with 10:44 left.
Auburn responded with a 7-0 streak to reduce the lead to 71-65, but a PJ Horne dunk put a load back on the Bulldogs and kept the Tigers at bay.
Georgia had a 39-30 lead at halftime, shooting 50 percent off the ground in the first 20 minutes.
It is the 14th time in 81 games under Crean that Georgia scores 90 points or more. Before Crean, UGA took 432 games to UGA to score 90 points or more.
Georgia is scheduled to return to action against Vanderbilt at 1 pm on Saturday at the Stegeman Coliseum.
The Commodores (5-8, 1-6) come from a 93-81 victory over South Carolina last Saturday, and had their Wednesday night game at Texas A&M postponed.
