This time, there would be no second-half collapse. Instead, the Georgia Bulldogs followed up a strong first half with an equally determined effort to upend Texas on Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum, 91-80.
The win boosts Georgia to 19-8 overall and 7-7 in the SEC. In the process, the Bulldogs snapped a five-game winning streak for the Longhorns, who fell to 17-10 and 8-6.
“We talked a lot with our guys these last couple of days about the fact that we’re coming off a game we played with a lot of edge in Lexington,” head coach Mike White said. “We were really, really competitive, and we haven’t always seen that. And that’s most teams, other than the championship-level teams and the top ten teams in the country. As part of our process, the question was, at home, can we replicate some of that? Today, I thought our guys did a really, really good job. We played really hard early and were able to sustain it offensively.”
Jeremiah Wilkinson led the Bulldogs with 19 points, followed by Smurf Millender with 15 and Kanon Catching with 13.
The Bulldogs were 11 of 20 from three-point range.
After last month’s debacle in Austin, when Texas outscored Georgia 57-30 in the second half, the Bulldogs entered the second half determined not to let history repeat.
“That’s come up every day in practice, every single day, multiple times. We knew we had to come out and had a lead going into the second half. We couldn’t let up as we did in the last game,” Wilkinson said. “(The first game) we got three stops in the second half. That just wasn’t good enough, and we knew we had to play harder than them to win this game. That’s what we did.”
Up by 10 at the half, the Bulldogs turned a block by Somto Cyril into a fast-break opportunity for Wikinson, who slammed it home for a 58-44 lead with 15:06 to play.
But the Longhorns would not go away.
Texas drew within eight, only to have Wilkinson answer with his third 3-pointer, allowing Georgia to regain its double-digit advantage.
However, that lead did not last long.
Back came the Longhorns once again. With Cyril on the bench with his fourth foul, Texas responded with a 15-2 run, tying the game with 7:37 remaining on Jordan Pope’s three-pointer.
Georgia would answer.
With Cyril out, Justin Abson came off the bench for the first time. All he did was respond with back-to-back buckets to put Georgia back up by four. The Bulldogs did not look back.
A three-pointer by Catchings was followed by a Longhorn turnover that Blue Cain converted into a 69-77 advantage with less than 5:26 left.
“It ought to give us confidence. It ought to confirm that what these guys are preaching to each other and what we’re trying to preach to them as a staff will work,” White said. “The swagger that we played with offensively, we gotta see that again, because if you tighten up with a lead in this league, oftentimes it can go the other way. That might be as much as that fact right there, that piece might be as important as a takeaway today.”
Fast Start
As they did last month in Austin, Georgia got off to a fast start.
The Bulldogs lead 45-35 heading into the locker room, leading by as many as 18 before Texas closed to 10.
Georgia had its three-point shot working.
The Bulldogs hit seven of their 10 attempts, including a perfect 3-of-3 effort by Millender, who led the way with 13 points inthe first.
Wilkinson wasn’t bad, either.
His first of two three-pointers started a 10-0 run to give Georgia a 26-9 lead at the 8:36 mark.
But Texas rallied back. The Longhorns answered with a 14-4 run to climb within eight until a Millender 3 pushed the margin back to double-digits.
Later, Jake Wilkins brought the crowd to its feet with a dunk off an offensive rebound before Texas closed the half on a 5-1 run to pull within 10.
Next Up
Georgia returns to action on Wednesday night when the Bulldogs travel to Vanderbilt.
The Bulldogs’ next home game is next Saturday against South Carolina.