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Georgia hits go-ahead late to escape with win over LSU

Palmber-Thombsby: Palmer Thombs02/15/23palmerthombs

ATHENS, Ga. — It wasn’t pretty by any means, but for the first time in exactly a month, Georgia Basketball has won back to back games. The Bulldogs followed up their upset of Kentucky on Saturday with a 65-63 Tuesday night victory over LSU at Stegeman Coliseum, moving to 16-10 overall and 6-7 in the SEC with the win.

Georgia’s Justin Hill finished as one of three Bulldogs in double-figures, none of whom reached the mark until the 10:30 mark in the second half. Hill had 10, trailing Jabri Abdur-Rahim‘s 11 and Braelen Bridges‘ 13, but his final three were without a doubt the biggest of them all. Hill drove the distance of the court and hit a contested layup with 4.4 seconds to go, giving Georgia the lead after an LSU jumper did the same for the Tigers just moments before. Meanwhile, on the LSU side of things, KJ Williams, who hit the jumper, was the only double-digit scorer with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

Georgia started the game off fast with two baskets in the first 29 seconds, but things slowed down considerably from there. In fact, in the 12:50 immediately after, the Bulldogs only hit two field goals. Meanwhile, LSU went on a 12-0 run to take an eight point lead, the largest either team held in the first half.

Georgia did however have some success from behind the 3-point line in the first 20 minutes of action. Four different Bulldogs hit from deep – Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Terry Roberts, Jailyn Ingram and Justin Hill. Three of those came in the final seven minutes of action as part of a 14-8 close to the half and go into the break down by just two, 28-26.

A strong start to the second half from Braelen Bridges helped Georgia take the lead with 13:53 to go, its first since the 11:07 mark in the first half. Bridges scored seven of the first nine points for the Bulldogs, tying the game at 35 before Jusaun Holt made a layup in transition off of an LSU turnover to take the lead.

Georgia and LSU were tied three times after the fact and traded the lead four times before the Bulldogs pulled ahead. Abdur-Rahim hit his third 3-pointer of the game to put Georgia ahead with 8:46 to go, a lead UGA held until the 11-second mark. LSU got it down to a one possession game at several different points down the stretch including a one-point game with 2:07 to go before taking the lead on a KJ Williams jumper with the shot clock expired. However, Georgia’s Hill drove the distance of the court and made a contested layup with 4.4 seconds to go, the eventual game-winner.

Georgia shot 60.9% percent from the field in the second half on 14-for-23 shooting after making just eight of 27 attempts in the first half of action. The Bulldogs were out-rebounded 37-28 but held a 32-24 advantage in the paint and off the bench, 24-19, while winning turnover battle 17-15. Georgia is now 4-3 in games decided by five points or less after going 1-5 last season and 12-0 when holding opponents to less than 70 points.

The game against LSU closed out a stretch of three straight at Stegeman Coliseum. Now comes the flip side of things with back to back on the road. Georgia travels to Tuscaloosa on Saturday to take on No. 1 Alabama at Coleman Coliseum. Tip time is set for 6:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

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