Georgia suffers first loss of season at home, 85-82, to Vanderbilt
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia dropped its first game at Stegeman Coliseum this season on Saturday, falling 85-82 to Vanderbilt. Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who led the Bulldogs in scoring on the afternoon with 21 points, had an attempt at the buzzer to send the game to overtime but saw his 3-pointer miss instead.
Georgia came out of the gate cold from the field, making just two of its first 13 attempts to start the game. That helped Vanderbilt go on a 12-2 run to jump ahead by seven with 13:50 to go in the first half.
With several of team’s top scorers Terry Roberts, Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe and Kario Oquendo each battling first-half foul trouble, Georgia relied on the hot hand of Abdur-Rahim for their offense. The third-year sophomore began to heat up as he hit four of his next five including three 3-pointers to help get Georgia back in the game, eventually tying it at 36 on a 3-pointer from Mardrez McBride.
Vanderbilt, who at one point was 50% from the field and 75% from 3-point range, closed the half out strong however with an 8-0 run in the final 2:03 of first-half action. The Commodores shot 8-of-12 from deep in the first 20:00 and went into the locker room up 44-36.
The second half saw a fairly similar story play out early on with neither team able to pull away or cut into the deficit much at all. Abdur-Rahim checked in and made an instant impact with a 3-pointer where he was fouled. He would make the free throw for a four-point-play but Vanderbilt quickly responded with a basket of its own. Twice in a span of less than 1:30 did the teams trade 3-pointers with the lead bouncing between Vandy being up nine and six. Georgia got it to within one possession though just before the 10:00 mark on the back of five straight points, including a 3-pointer, from Roberts.
After both teams failed to score from the 9:03 to 7:01 marks in a three point game, Vanderbilt scored nine straight to stretch its lead out to double-digits. Jusaun Holt hit a 3-pointer to get back within seven and Braelen Bridges made a pair of free throws after the under-4 media timeout to get within five.
Vanderbilt turned it over and let Roberts find Oquendo in transition for a huge slam dunk before Roberts took it to the basket himself to make it a one-point game. That caused Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse to call a timeout with 2:04 to go.
Vanderbilt would lead by as many as four and as few as one in the final minute as Georgia continued to send the Dores to the free throw line while scoring on their trips down the court. Abdur-Rahim was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three attempts before Vanderbilt’s Tyrin Lawrence made his two. That set Georgia up with one final look to tie the game with 3.9 seconds to go inbounding on their own half of the court. Abdur-Rahim missed the buzzer-beating attempt off the inbound to end the game.
Georgia, who falls to 13-6 overall and 3-3 in SEC play, goes on the road to No. 9 Tennessee this upcoming week (Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. ET, SEC Network) before returning back to Stegeman Coliseum the following Saturday to play South Carolina.
