Georgia stomps LSU after Wheeler records first triple-double in school history
ATHENS-- Sahvir Wheeler accomplished a feat that no Georgia basketball player in school history ever has.
Wheeler became the first Georgia basketball player in the program’s history to record a triple double, finishing with 14 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds. Georgia (14-9, 7-9) rode that piece of history to a 91-78 home handling of LSU (14-7, 9-5).
Wheeler’s 10th assist that secured him the impressive statistical achievement was rather dramatic. With 10:46 left to play in the game, Wheeler lobbed up a pass to freshman K.D. Johnson for a dunk that bounced around the basket, causing a moment of suspense in Stegeman Coliseum.
“It’s a great feeling. It’s an even better feeling for it to come out of a win,” Wheeler said.
Looking back on it, Wheeler being the first player to record a triple-double is seemingly unbelievable. No, Georgia is not one of the premiere basketball programs, but a fair share of talented players have donned red and black.
To put it another way, Dominique Wilkins, Anthony Edwards and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were extremely gifted and highly-rated players that did not reach this feat. Wheeler is the sole player in the record books for this statistic, and all of the aforementioned stars went on to make it to the National Basketball Association.
He was not the only Bulldog to put up impressive numbers. Fellow sophomore Toumani Camara notched a career-high 22 points and added 10 rebounds to record an SEC-leading seventh double-double of the campaign. Camara also blocked three shots, but all of them came within the first few minutes of the contest.
In the final six minutes of the first half, Georgia went on a 21-6 run, and from there on out, the Bulldogs never looked back. Georgia’s lead never dwindled to single digits in the entire second half.
“We got a lot of high-level effort and energetic basketball from these guys, and they established early on that they were gonna play with toughness,” coach Tom Crean said.
The Bulldogs also played one of their cleanest games of the entire season, committing just 11 turnovers. That is tied for their least amount of turnovers in a game this season. Georgia only had 12 turnovers in their loss to Florida last Saturday, so this looks to be a category they are improving in.
Playing fast has equated to many turnovers this season. The Bulldogs are ranked a concerning 332nd out of 340 teams, averaging almost 17 turnovers a game.
Now, there is another side to everything that happened on this record-breaking night. LSU did not play a good game. The Tigers are a team that can really score, but their percentages were rough. They went 8/30 from beyond the arc, and missing threes when a team is down is not a winning formula.
Nonetheless, this was a much needed and a good win for Georgia, who is struggling to find their rhythm.
Up Next
Barring any changes to the schedule, Georgia’s last regular season game will be at home on Saturday. The Bulldogs will face up against South Carolina one more time. The Gamecocks destroyed Georgia 83-59 in their first meeting, but the Bulldogs will presumably be playing with a lot of momentum given what they accomplished against LSU.