South Carolina hands Georgia another ugly loss
ATHENS-- Much like the loss to South Carolina in January, Saturday’s defeat was nothing short of ugly for Georgia.
What seemed like a winnable game quickly turned into another disaster for Georgia- the kind of loss that has happened too many times in one season. South Carolina (6-12, 4-10) once again dominated Georgia (14-10, 7-10), soaring their way to a 91-70 win.
“When no one is in the fight, that falls back on the head coach, and that’s where I’m at,” coach Tom Crean said.
Crean summed up this loss in one sentence, but there is a lot more to it than that.
In high school, students are taught to write a thesis statement with about three main points to support their argument, and there is a conclusion at the end. That’s how this story is going to go. While there are more than three areas of the game where Crean’s squad lost this one, there are three that standout.
So, here it goes: The Georgia basketball team suffered a disastrous loss to South Carolina because of their inefficient scoring, their carelessness with the basketball and their inability to defend inside the paint.
Georgia could not put the ball in the basket against the Gamecocks, and it starts with their best player. Sahvir Wheeler, one game off of becoming the first player in Georgia history to record a triple-double, ended the contest with seven points on 2/13 shooting from the field.
A positive side note for Wheeler is that he broke the single-season record for assists in Georgia history. His current tally is 170 total assists this year.
As a team, Georgia shot 36.7% from the field compared to South Carolina finishing shooting 53.6%. Georgia almost always gets outshot by their opponents, and it was not something they could not afford today.
Quite possibly Georgia’s biggest issue this season has been their unbelievable amount of turnovers. In the first half, Georgia committed 11 turnovers. Two of those were shot clock violations that happened within a minute of each other.
The Bulldogs committed 19 total turnovers against South Carolina, and as Crean would tell you, a lot of them were avoidable.
Adding more to it, one of the most glaring statistics was that South Carolina outscored Georgia 48-30 in the painted area. Georgia is such a small team, and the Gamecocks were clearly more physical.
In conclusion, this was a bad loss. The Bulldogs want to make the NCAA tournament, but winning out these last couple of games before the SEC tournament felt necessary.
Up Next
After the last game, I asked Crean if they were working on adding a new game to the schedule since their matchup with Texas A&M was cancelled due to COVID. He was not sure yet, but insisted that Georgia would add at least one regular season game.
On Thursday, it was announced that the Bulldogs will have a rematch with Alabama on Saturday Mar. 6 at 2 pm. The Crimson Tide crushed Georgia 115-82 in their first game in Tuscaloosa. A win against Alabama is a tall task, but it looks as if that’s something that needs to happen if they want even a small chance to make it to the NCAA tournament.
Georgia has a week to prepare for one of the best teams in the entire country.