Bryant, Cocks overcome early surge by Georgia
Bryant, Cocks overcome early surge by Georgia
Wash, Rinse and Repeat: The Bulldogs lose another one to South Carolina
ATHENS, Ga. — South Carolina continued its dominance over Georgia on the hardwood Saturday with an 80-68 victory.
The Gamecocks (14-10, 5-7) completed their 2021-22 sweep of the Bulldogs (6-19, 1-11) for the sixth straight season. They have now won 12 straight contests over Georgia, which is a streak that dates back to the 2016-17 regular season. The last time the Bulldogs defeated South Carolina was during the 2015-16 SEC Tournament in Nashville.
On Saturday, Georgia came out firing on all cylinders in the first several minutes, leading 21-14 at the 11:18 mark in the first half. Nevertheless, South Carolina would respond by going on a 20-0 run over the next four minutes, which was powered by senior Keyshawn Bryant.
The Gamecocks held a 13-point lead with 6:46 left until Georgia’s Kario Oquendo broke its scoring silence with a pair of consecutive 3-pointers.
Those two shots pulled the Bulldogs to within seven, although South Carolina would shoot well down the stretch in the final minutes of the first half. The Gamecocks clung to a four-point advantage at halftime as Bryant scored 13 of his 22 points in the first half.
Even so, the duo of Oquendo and senior forward Braelen Bridges kept Georgia in the contest as both each totaled 12 points. Freshman Jabri Abdur-Rahim added six points in the opening half.
Abdur-Rahim said after the game that South Carolina’s long run in the first half was hard to overcome.
“It’s a game of runs, we knew we’d have an opportunity to make our run,” Abdur-Rahim said. “Once we made some adjustments, we knew we could be fine, and we got some stops to cut it down.”
The two programs traded blows in the opening minutes of the second half, but South Carolina led by six points with 7:39 left. The Gamecocks continued to build on that lead as both Bryant and Devin Carter couldn’t be contained, totaling 23 points in the second half.
On the other hand, the Bulldogs went cold, shooting 2-of-13 from the field in the final five minutes. Georgia proceeded to shoot 0-for-8 from the field following Bridges’ jumper at the 4:17 mark, totaling a 33.3 percent effort in the final half. Overall, the Bulldogs shot 42.1 percent in the contest.
Georgia head coach Tom Crean acknowledged that the Gamecocks’ zone defense made it tough for his guys to grab offensive boards inside the paint and get second-chance points.
“It was a very physical game,” Crean said. “We didn’t always match up the way we needed to.”
South Carolina out-rebounded the Bulldogs 41-27 and notched 18 second-chance points.
Crean pointed out that Georgia was missing some players due to injuries or illness, although didn’t make an excuse for its performance on the glass against the Gamecocks.
“We have no size right now,” Crean said. With Josh Taylor being sick, with McMillan being out, those are guys who can spell Braelen a little bit. Guys just had to play way too long. It wasn’t that they had to play too many minutes. They played too long of stretches. It was a physical game, and your confidence can leave you when you’re not making shots.”
Bryant led South Carolina and all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Oquendo led the Bulldogs with 18 points, followed by Bridges, who totaled 16 points, respectively.
Georgia will play at LSU in Baton Rouge on Wednesday and host Ole Miss next Saturday.