Georgia opens SEC play with three straight loses
Georgia basketball winning their first seven games to open the season is starting to look more and more like a tease.
The Georgia Bulldogs (7-3, 0-3) was easily handled by the Arkansas Razorbacks (10-2, 2-2) on Saturday afternoon, falling 99-69. This loss comes after a hard fought game where Georgia couldn’t find a way to outscore LSU. Against Arkansas, the story was much different- it was total domination in the second half.
The game was competitive, featuring a first half that consisted of seven lead changes. There was cause for concern early in the game, however, despite only trailing by six points at halftime.
Toumani Camara scored the first eight points of the game for the Bulldogs. No other player for Georgia scored in the first six minutes of the contest. Matters grew worse for Georgia as Camera was in foul trouble the entire game.
Camara missed a lot of the first half after picking up two quick fouls, forcing Georgia head coach Tom Crean to bench him again with 16 minutes left in the game after picking up his fourth foul.
“We did not come out with the same ferver in the second half as they did, and they turned it up, ans we did not respond,” Crean said.
Crean mentioned over and over again in the postgame press conference that his team’s effort level was just not on par with what it should have been. Georgia did not look motivated enough to come back from a deficit.
Arkansas outscored Georgia 56-32 in the second half. Arkansas took advantage of a 12-0 run early in the second half and they never looked back, overtaking control of the momentum completely.
The Razorbacks had 10 more rebounds than the Bulldogs. The most glaring number within that is that Camara did not grab a single board, and he is the team’s leading rebounder.
Arkansas shot better than Georgia from the field, beyond the arc and the free-throw line.They had 13 more assists, and defensively, Arkansas had one more steal and two more blocks than Georgia did.
“Our effort was not nearly good enough on guarding the ball,” Crean said.
All of these numbers were horrible for Georgia, but the worst one was the turnover differential. The Bulldogs committed 21 turnovers compared to just 14 for Arkansas. Overall, the team just looked sloppy and out of focus.
Arkansas showed that they were the better team. There was not a single aspect of the game or statistic in which Georgia had the edge.
Camara and Sahvir Wheeler led the way for Georgia with 15 and 14 points, respectively, but the Bulldogs allowed Moses Moody to score 25 points. This is yet another star in the SEC that has had no problem scoring against Georgia.
Georgia has now suffered three straight losses in as many conference games. Concerningly enough, their path does not ease up as there are new challenges ahead. The Auburn Tigers are up next, and they look revitalized now that five-star point guard Sharife Cooper has been cleared to play.
Cooper scored 26 points and logged nine assists in his Auburn debut, and he will be a difficult matchup for Georgia to overcome. Georgia will host Auburn on Wednesday night at 7:00, and they will have to clean up a lot of their play in order to avoid dropping four games in a row.