Abdur-Rahim provides spark for Georgia in a loss to Wofford
Abdur-Rahim provides spark for Georgia in a loss to Wofford
Athens, GA. — Georgia got a lot of help from sophomore Jabri Abdur-Rahim off the bench on Sunday, although it wasn’t enough as Wofford came away with a 68-65 victory.
Abdur-Rahim led all scorers with 20 points, which is a career-high for the Virginia transfer. He shot 86 percent (6-of-7) from the field, 80 percent (4-of-5) from the 3-point line and 80 percent (4-of-5) from the free-throw line. Abdur-Rahim also had a team-high plus-minus of nine.
Graduate transfer Jailyn Ingram said it was a matter of time until Abdur-Rahim went off.
“We know he hits shots day-in-and-day-out at practice,” Ingram said. “He’s constantly in the gym, so we just constantly push him to shoot the ball with confidence because we know he’s going to make them. Tonight was just the first example of what he can do for the rest of the season.”
Abdur-Rahim needed a game like that, especially after totaling a combined seven points in a trip back to his home state of New Jersey. He had four points on 1-of-7 shooting in a 10-point loss to Virginia. Abdur-Rahim then totaled three points on another off-shooting night against Northwestern to end the Legends Classic tournament.
Abdur-Rahim acknowledged that his performance on Sunday gives him confidence moving forward.
“The thing about basketball is it’s just makes and misses, shots are going to come and go,” Abdur-Rahim said. “Tonight, they just fell and other nights they didn’t. So, you can’t put too much emphasis on makes and misses. I tried to kind of get myself going doing some other stuff, but I had some good looks early, and they just happened to fall.”
The Bulldogs had a 34-33 halftime lead thanks to Abdur-Rahim nailing a buzzer-beating triple. However, he sat for the first six-plus minutes of the second half as both the Terriers and Georgia traded baskets. The Blair Academy product scored eight points for the Bulldogs in the final ten minutes down the stretch, but it wasn’t enough as they came up short in the end.
Georgia was plagued by turnovers, totaling 19 in the loss to the Terriers. It’s something that the Bulldogs have struggled with all season. Wofford took advantage of Georgia’s miscues and scored 22 points off turnovers. With a matchup against No. 9 Memphis looming on Wednesday, the Bulldogs will try and make it a point of emphasis to clean up in the next few days at practice.
Abdur-Rahim pointed out that he’s frustrated because Georgia consistently turns the ball over more than it should.
“I think there’s a lot to learn over the last couple of games, especially for just taking care of the ball,” Abdur-Rahim. “It starts with everybody. We’ve just got to take more pride on that end. Going into Memphis, we will also need to take more pride defensively.”
He also said that Georgia just needs to get back to practice and clean up a few things.
Sometimes the guys hit a lane a little easy and that’s been happening the last couple of games,” Abdur-Rahim said. “So, I think we can get back to practice, and everyone can hold themselves accountable to stand in front of their man and be better defensively. We also have to stay positive because it’s a long season. We have a couple of losses early, but we need to stay positive and know what we need to get better on. I think we can do that.”