Comeback attempt falls short
Kentucky came into Saturday night’s game at Rupp Arena against Georgia as the top-scoring team in all of Division I basketball, tallying 91 points per game.
After it was over, the 8th-ranked Wildcats can add a few more points to that average after rolling past the Bulldogs, 105-96.
The loss–Georgia’s first road defeat of the year in four games–dropped the Bulldogs to 13-5 overall, 3-2 in the SEC.
“Kentucky is as skilled a team as we will play all year in terms of shooting and passing,” Georgia head coach Mike White said. “They went 14 of 25 on threes. You’re not overcoming that on the road.”
Georgia tried.
The Bulldogs trailed Kentucky by 28 points, 96-68 with 7:55 to play before attempting a late run.
Though the deficit was too much to overcome, Georgia outscored the Wildcats 28-9 the rest of the way to get the final margin under double-digits.
Georgia’s 61 second-half points were easily the program’s season high.
“This team is resilient. It’s going to continue to fight and respond. It’s a competitive team that plays with pride,” White said. “I was very surprised we dug that big of a hole. We did not see that coming, but I was not surprised at the way we continue to fight.”
Jabri Abdur-Rahim led the Bulldogs with a career-high 34 points, followed by freshman Silas Demary Jr. with 22, also a career-high.
“I thought Jabri was amazing. I thought our guys did a good job of finding him and getting him shots,” White said. “I thought Silas Demary Jr. played with a tremendous amount of physical toughness. Russel Tchewa only scored four points, but he did a great job of sealing and using his physicality to get guards shots at the rim. There were some positives to take.”
Tre Mitchell topped Kentucky with 23 points, followed by Antonio Reeves with 21, DJ Wagner with 18, and Zvonimi Ivisic with 13.
Ivisic was the story of the first half.
The freshman from Croatia, who was playing his first game since gaining his eligibility from the NCAA, enjoyed quite the debut.
Over a five-minute stretch, the big 7-foot-2 center hit his first four shots, including a trio of threes, for 11 points, to go along with three rebounds and a pair of blocks.
Although there weren’t many early highlights for the Bulldogs, Georgia showed some early spark before Ivisic came into the game.
The Bulldogs used a pair of three-pointers from Abdur-Rahim to go ahead 10-8.
However, Kentucky (14-4, 4-1) was just too talented and too deep.
Reeves scored eight of his team’s next 11 points as the Wildcats surged ahead 19-10 and never looked back.
Georgia would close within eight before Ivisic went nuts, scoring all 11 of his first-half points over a 2:24 stretch pushing Kentucky ahead by 17 before going into halftime up 54-35.
“We saw, probably like you guys did, that he was going to play, and we gathered some film in a hurry,” White said. “We knew he was a very talented, skilled big. But to see him come in and start firing with that kind of confidence from (3-point range), we did not see that coming.”
Georgia returns to action Wednesday night with a home game against LSU.
