Georgia basketball players immersed themselves with more than the scouting report for No. 22 Alabama heading into Wednesday night’s SEC tilt in Stegeman Coliseum.
Center Frank Anselem-Ibe knew the Bulldogs could get a big boost to their NCAA tournament resume with a win against the SEC ‘s first-place team, but he laid out why it wasn’t the end-all, be-all.
Still, this one was there for the taking and the Bulldogs gave it away.
Georgia held a 14-point halftime lead but couldn’t close out a win against a ranked opponent at home once again, losing 85-76.
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The Bulldogs committed a season-high 19 turnovers and went more than five and a half minutes without a field goal as Alabama surged ahead late, taking its first lead of the game with 4:47 to go.
“We’ve just got to be better executing down the stretch,” said freshman guard Silas Demary who had 10 points on 3 of 10 shooting with 3 steals, an assist and 4 turnovers. “We’ve got to take better care of the ball and we’ve got to really finish these games.”
Crimson Tide turn it on in second half
Alabama couldn’t get anything going on offense in the first half.
Georgia (14-7, 4-4 SEC) had a hard time stopping the Tide in the second half.
The Crimson Tide (15-6, 7-1) shot 62.5 percent from the field and was 6 of 12 from the 3-point line.
“Setting out halfcourt defense in the second half was ineffective” coach Mike White said. “We just did a poor job off of free throws, off of makes, off of misses.”
Mark Sears scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half after being held to 4 points on 2 of 6 shooting in the first half. He was 6 of 8 in the second half when he was 3 of 4 on 3-pointers.
Alabama arrived in Athens coming off a 109-point scoring output in a win over LSU and as the top scoring team nationally at 89.7 per game.
Georgia held The Crimson Tide to a season low points in a half in building a 41-27 halftime lead.
Alabama was just 2 of 11 on 3s in the first half before Sears, the SEC’s third leading scorer, and his teammates got going in the second.
Grant Nelson, a 6-foot-11 transfer from North Dakota State, buried a pair of 3-pointers late, the second with 1:21 to go for a 79-73 lead. He finished with 20 points on 8 of 11.
“They hit some big-time shots down the stretch,” said Georgia guard Noah Thomasson who had 15 points.
Ranked opponent rallies vs. Georgia basketball at home again
The Bulldogs also missed a chance to upset No. 5 Tennessee Jan. 13 when the Volunteers ended the game on a 15-1 run for a 75-64 win
“That’s the difference between us being 4-4 (in the SEC) and 6-2,” Thomasson said. “We’ve just got to learn to keep playing and not look at the score. Keep doing the little things that got us the lead in the first place.”
This one was Georgia’s sixth straight loss to a ranked opponent.
The Bulldogs have lost back-to-back games for the first time since mid-November and have lost three of their last four.
White said of the Tennessee and Alabama losses at home: “When you’re building, you’ve got to learn how to win. …We’ve got to be better with playing with the lead at home.”
Georgia still hasn’t beaten a ranked Alabama team since coach Hugh Durham’s last season, 72-58, on Feb. 4, 1995 against a No. 20 Tide squad.
Coming off a career-high 35-point game at Florida, Georgia’s RJ Melendez started for the first time since he was in the lineup for the first five games of the season.
The move paid off with Georgia running out to a 17-2 lead just over eight minutes into the game.
Melendez (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Jabri Abdur-Rahim accounted for 5 of those points and they celebrated briefly in the direction of the home fans when Alabama called a timeout after Melendez and Blue Cain buried 3-pointers as the Bulldogs poured on 13 straight points.
Melendez had 9 points and 7 rebounds in the first half as Georgia dominated Alabama on the glass to the tune of 27-7.
Georgia was 7 of 13 on 3s in the first half, but 0 for 4 in the second when Alabama adjusted its defense.
What’s left on the table for Georgia Bulldogs
Nine of Georgia’s last 10 games are Quad 1 or Quad 2 games.
Georgia still has six games to go against teams ranked in the top 45 of the NET including Saturday against No. 39 South Carolina and Wednesday at No. 37 Mississippi State.
“We’re going to have to start winning some big-time games for us to get to where we want to get to and that’s the NCAA tournament,” Thomasson said leading into the game.
Georgia fell to 1-4 in Quad 1 games. It currently has three more chances: at Mississippi State and home and away against Auburn. Alabama was ranked No. 7 in the NET.
“It’s not like we just gave up a lead to a mid-major opponent,” White said. “We played with a lot of heart with what’s been going on around the facility the last few days.”
White said Demary played 29 minutes after not “breaking a sweat” since the overtime loss to Florida Saturday. Justin Hill, Abdur-Rahim, Thomasson were battling illness, White said.
“They swung away,” he said.