Georgia season comes to close with disappointing semifinal loss at hands of Seton Hall

Georgia Basketball say its season come to an end on Tuesday night in Indianapolis as the Bulldogs fell 84-67 to Seton Hall in the semifinals of the NIT. The run matched the furthest in the program’s history in the tournament, tying teams from 1982 and 1998, and allowed UGA to hit a milestone of 20 wins on the 2023-24 campaign, a first in the last eight seasons in Athens.

Freshman point guard Silas Demary finished off an impressive first year at Georgia with a team-high 19 points in the loss. Noah Thomasson also had 10 points in what’s his final career collegiate game, topping the 1,500-point mark in the process. As for Seton Hall, five different players reached double-figures including Al-Amir Dawes and Dre Davis who went for 20 and 19 respectively.

“It was an emotional locker room,” Georgia head coach Mike White said after the game. “I mean, I’ve lost in several NITs as an assistant and as a head coach, and it’s different than losing in the NCAA Tournament, just being honest obviously. We were super honored to be a part of this tournament as we always will be. It was unique though with this group. These guys were devastated downstairs. It showed how much they care for one another, how much they intended on playing another game.”

How It Happened…

Georgia started the game missing nine of its first ten from the field, watching Seton Hall jump out to a double-digit point lead in the first five minutes. Having seen enough, Mike White called his first timeout with 13:57 to go in the first half, trailing 18-3.

Big man Russel Tchewa and RJ Melendez put an end to the scoreless stretch out of the timeout with a jumper in the paint and a 3-pointer, Georgia’s first made field goals in 5:37. Melendez would convert on an and-one that got the Bulldogs back to within single digits, but another impressive stretch by Seton Hall put the Pirates ahead by 15 in a matter of minutes.

After Melendez’s and-one, the Pirates scored 20 of the next 27 making buckets by Jalen DeLoach, Silas Demary and Blue Cain mean very little towards putting a dent into the Seton Hall attack. Georgia would however cut into the deficit some by halftime however, getting it down to 17 at 42-25 thanks to a combined seven points down the stretch from Demary and Justin Hill.

Seton Hall went into the locker room shooting 50%, and the second half saw the Pirates continue to roll to victory. Jaden Bediako started the second 20:00 of action strong with a trio of buckets in the first five minutes while Dre Davis continued to pitch in with a pair of his own after scoring nine in the first half. Al-Amir Dawes saw an early 3-pointer fall to add to his first-frame 12 while the team’s leading scorer, Kadary Richmond, did his damage early with 10 points in the first half.

Trailing by as many as 22, Georgia got down to trailing by 11 points with 5:36 to go, using contributions from Noah Thomasson, M.A. Moncrieffe and Demary. The Bulldogs shot 50% from the field in the second half, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit faced from Seton Hall’s hot start to the contest.

While Seton Hall advances to play Indiana State for the NIT Championship on Thursday, Georgia’s season comes to an end in the semifinals with a 20-17 record, the first 20-win season in the last eight for the Bulldogs. UGA made the postseason for the first time since 2017, winning one game there for the first time since 2016 and multiple for the first time since 1998. It’s also just the program’s third-ever appearance in the NIT semifinals – all three of which have ended with a loss.

UGA is guaranteed to lose graduate transfers Noah Thomasson, Russel Tchewa and RJ Sunahara – the first two whom represent the team’s leading scorer and rebounder respectively – but have hope to bring back a strong core group including Freshman All-SEC selection Silas Demary and other key pieces with five-star forward Asa Newell signed in the Class of 2024. With NCAA rule changes, every player outside of those three has the option to enter the transfer portal and play right away should they choose to leave Athens, meaning it’s on Mike White and company to keep the team intact.