Kanon Catchings made seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 32 points to help Georgia knock off No. 16 Alabama 98-88 on Tuesday in Athens, Ga., snapping the Crimson Tide’s eight-game winning streak.
Catchings was 12-for-20 from the floor and 7-for-13 from distance, two of them in the final five minutes, with six rebounds.
The Bulldogs (21-9, 9-8 Southeastern Conference) also got 16 points from Blue Cain, leaving him one point shy of reaching the 1,000-point career mark. Marcus “Smurf” Millender scored 12 with six assists, and Kareem Stagg added 10.
Alabama (22-8, 12-5) was led by Labaron Philon Jr.’s 26 points, including four 3-pointers. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. added 19 points, with five 3-pointers and five rebounds. Aden Holloway scored 15, and Aiden Sherrell scored 12.
Georgia avenged last year’s 21-point loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa and ended a three-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide.
Georgia scored the first six points of the game, but Alabama scored the next six. From that point, neither team led by more than two points until the Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run, which included eight points by Catchings, to grab a 30-20 lead with 7:50 left.
The Bulldogs led by 11 points when Alabama went on a 9-3 run to cut the advantage to 41-36. The Tide closed the gap to four but Catchings made a 3-pointer at the buzzer – giving him 20 for the half — to give Georgia a 50-43 lead at halftime.
The same back-for-forth pattern continued in the second half. The Bulldogs led by 12, only to have Alabama cut it to six, before reeling off six unanswered points for a 63-51 lead.
A clock malfunction caused a 20-minute stoppage of play with 7:57 remaining and Georgia leading 75-67. After Alabama scored, the shot malfunctioned again and the time was kept on the scorer’s table for the remainder of the game.
Georgia finally put the game away by making five straight 3-pointers, going up 90-80 on a trey by Millender with 2:58 remaining.
–Field Level Media
