Georgia may be starting to figure things out in time to make a late push toward earning an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Bulldogs now must avoid repeating what happened to Arkansas over the weekend in Columbia, S.C., and beat last-place South Carolina on Tuesday night.
Georgia (18-11, 6-10 SEC) enters its final conference road game with a NET of 33. The Bulldogs are coming off consecutive wins over then-No. 3 Florida and Texas, marking the second time this season they won consecutive league games.
Georgia’s other winning streak in the conference occurred Jan. 7-11 when it beat then-No. 6 Kentucky and then-No. 17 Oklahoma by a combined 23 points. The Bulldogs lost nine of 11 games after that before producing prolific offense against Florida and Texas.
Georgia followed up its five-point over Florida by holding a 17-point lead at halftime and earning a comfortable 83-67 win at Texas to snap a seven-game road losing streak. Silas Demary scored a career-high 26 points; he shot 15-of-26 in the two wins and is averaging 20.5 points in his past six contests.
“We’re finally breaking through, figuring ourselves out,” Demary said after the Bulldogs followed up shooting 53.8 percent against Florida by making 51.8 percent on Saturday.
Demary’s ascent gives the Bulldogs another option alongside leading scorer Asa Newell, who scored a combined 43 points in losses to Missouri and Auburn.
Guard Blue Cain is also starting to contribute more for the Bulldogs, who average 75.6 points per game. Cain finished with 13 Saturday and has been in double figures over his past five games.
Georgia’s defense contained SEC leading scorer Tre Johnson by holding him to 12 points and now encounters another potential first-round draft pick in South Carolina leading scorer Collin Murray-Boyles.
Murray-Boyles scored a career-high 35 points Saturday when the Gamecocks (12-17, 2-14) dominated all day en route to a 72-53 rout of Arkansas. Murray-Boyles also scored 22 against Texas and in his past three games has totaled 84 points on 31-of-43 shooting.
The Gamecocks also held Arkansas to 28.8 percent from the field, including 3-of-22 from behind the arc.
“You don’t accidentally, defensively, have a performance like that,” South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said. “It takes energy. It takes commitment. It takes tremendous effort. That’s what these guys are doing right now.”
–Field Level Media
