Georgia ends losing streak with road victory versus Vanderbilt
Having lost six straight entering Wednesday night, Georgia Basketball is finally back on the winning end. The Bulldogs took down Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville by a score of 76-64.
Noah Thomasson led Georgia in scoring with 17 points, doing all of his work in the first half. He was joined in double-figures by Jabri Abdur-Rahim who had 13 while Russel Tchewa dominated on the boards with 10 rebounds. Overall, eight Bulldogs made multiple shots from the field.
Meanwhile, for Vanderbilt, it was freshman Paul Lewis who had a career-high 18 to led the Commodores in the loss. Four different Vanderbilt players reached double digits.
“It’s been a tough few weeks. It’s really gratifying. It feels great to get back in that win column,” Georgia head coach Mike White said after the game. “I’m really proud and happy for our guys. That’s a happy locker room. We’ve talked about this all year, our guys work. They consistently work, consistently bring it, their approach to practice and work overall daily is really good. As good as I’ve ever been around. We had another great practice last night, a pretty sharp shootaround this morning, just had a lot of carry-over. We saw a team that played like they practiced, and we need more of that.”
With the win, Georgia moves to 15-11 overall on the season, 5-8 in SEC play and just one win shy of matching last season’s total in both categories. The victory represents UGA’s largest on the road since January of 2017 and largest in SEC play this season. Along with snapping the losing streak that lasted four weeks, the Bulldogs pick up their first victory over Vanderbilt in the last five meetings between the two teams.
How It Happened…
Noah Thomasson picked up right where he left off on Saturday. After making five 3-pointers in the loss to Florida, the Houston, Texas native poured in five during the first 20:00 of action.
Thomasson connected on his first attempt from the field and helped Georgia build out a 7-0 lead early. That was extended to double digits with just before the under-12 timeout and as many as 18 in the first frame, using six separate runs of at least five consecutive points for the Bulldogs.
While Thomasson led the way with 17 in the first half, it was a team effort with Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Silas Demary, RJ Melendez and Russel Tchewa all making multiple shots from the field. As a group, UGA shot 59.3% from the field before halftime and out-rebounded Vanderbilt by 11, entering the locker room up by 16 with a 44-28 advantage.
After the teams traded buckets back and forth early in the second half, the Commodores used a 7-0 run to creep their way back into it. However, the Bulldogs quickly responded with a run of their own to take their largest lead of the game. A Blue Cain 3-pointer with 12:15 to go in the game put Georgia ahead by 21 and made it 10 straight points in less than 2:00.
Georgia kept its advantage in double figures for the entirety of the second half as Vanderbilt never got closer than 12 in the final 10:00.
Georgia returns to Athens after the road game in Nashville to host rival Auburn in the first of two meetings between the teams in the final five games. The Tigers, who have had the week off since their loss last time out to Kentucky, come to the Classic City ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll but two-games back in their hunt for an SEC regular season title. Tip time for Saturday is set for 6:00 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
