| 01 February 2012
Well, things started out pretty well for the Georgia basketball squad over in Auburn, Alabama tonight. First, a three pointer by Gerald Robinson Jr to open the scoring. Then, Donte Williams would hit a nice little 10 foot baseline jumper to stretch the lead out to 5-0. The Dawgs would keep Auburn off the scoreboard for the first seven minutes of the game, but would only score one more basket in that same stretch of time to open the game making the score only 7-0 before Auburn could even stretch the nylon on two free throws by Velez Ward. By halftime, the Tigers would hold a 26-15 advantage as Georgia would continue to put up miss after miss. Kenny Gabriel would get the crowd re-energized with high flying action on lob passes for dunks and just nasty, Sportcenter type of blocks on defense.
The first half was just a horrendous display of offense as Georgia, remember I mentioned they made their first two shots, would finish the half shooting 4/23. Yes, that would equate to 17% shooting for an entire half. The maddening thing is watching HOW the offense was playing. Auburn basically dropped back into a fairly aggressive 2-3 zone, but instead of attacking the zone, Georgia was content to swing the ball around the perimeter for about 20 seconds after crossing half court. Then putting up a three with a hand in the face, which leads to a 17% shooting percentage. The ball would rarely find it's way to the post, despite seeing a couple of opportunities when John Florveus was in the game, to see if he could get something going, or at the very least make the defense have to move, and open up a kick out on the perimeter. It seemed as though the players are reverting back to not having the confidence to just make the correct pass on the play. The player will sit there with the ball in his hands, and look as though he will make the pass, but then have just that brief moment of "wait, maybe I shouldn't do that, OH YEA I SHOULD!..." and then the defense recovers and the opening is closed. The players are thinking too much, and not reacting on the floor.
Despite such a poor first half of play, the game would come down to the last couple of minutes. The Bulldogs would make a run in the second half, by almost doubling their shooting percentage to 31% *YEESH*, but continued to play well enough on defense to win. The shots just would not fall, as Donte Williams, who would have a solid game with 9 points and 9 boards, would miss a put back and a chippy layup that would go half way down and come out. It just seemed as though it was not Georgia's night to get a win.
The biggest culprit in the loss would be that Auburn would actually step up and make their free throws in the game. It was previously mentioned in the game preview that both teams were shooting under 70% for the season. Both teams would shoot their free throws tonight well enough to make Rick Barry proud, as Georgia would hit 19/23, but Auburn, while shooting a lesser percentage, would drain 25/31. Velez Ward would be the hero of the game for Auburn as he came off the bench and dominate the floor while he was in for his 30 minutes of play. Ward would finish with 17 points 3 assists and 4 rebounds from his point guard position, all while going a perfect 12/12 from the charity stripe, completely unexpected for a 60% free throw shooter on the season.
Gerald Robinson would lead Georgia with 16 points 8 rebounds and 4 assists. He played well, but Coach Fox would pull him a couple of times during the game for trying to take too much into his own hands it seemed, but with no one else able to step up Fox had no other alternative but to reinsert Robinson back into the game. Donte Williams continues to improve as he would hit a couple of those previously mentioned baseline jumpers. Dustin Ware overcame a slow start to finish with 10 points.
Here is what a disappointed Coach Fox had to say after the game courtesy of Georgiadogs.com:
"We just didn't play very well offensively," Georgia head coach Mark Fox said. "Even with our shooting, we had a chance to win the game but made so many unintelligent plays. We let our frustration affect our offensive play. Still, we put ourselves in position and got it to where it was one-possession game, but found a way to mess it up. Give Auburn credit. They got to the foul line a great deal in the second half, and that was real key for them."
Georgia will travel to Knoxville for an 8 pm est tip off on Fox Sports South this Saturday 2/8/12.
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