Sitting alongside Tyrin Lawrence in Sunday’s post-game press conference, Silas Demary Jr. laughed that it’s a lot of fun playing with a team of bigs that play the way they did in Georgia’s 92-64 win over Texas Southern.
“Today we kind of primarily went through the bigs, so, you know, everybody's sharing the love. They put up good screens to get us to the rim. They plug for us,” Demary Jr. said. “So, when we can hit them on a pocket pass and they can shoot that touch shot, or we come off the ball screen and throw them a lob, it's just a lot of fun. I think it brings the crowd in more, and it hypes everybody up.”
It was impressive.
The Bulldogs (2-0) outrebounded the Tigers 53-23 while blocking 12 shots, four each by Somto Cyril and Asa Newell.
Georgia's 12 blocks tied for the most in a game by the Bulldogs since 2019.
“Oh, my goodness. If we could get 12 every night we'd be in business. I'm not sure how many times that's going to happen. Our motor around the rim and even altered a few more than that,” head coach Mike White said. “We've got good length and athleticism. Our ceiling is high defensively. We've got a ways to go of course.”
Ironically, Georgia’s strongest rebounder was sophomore Blue Cain, who tallied his first-career double-double with 12 points and 11 boards. He was one of four Bulldogs with six or more rebounds on the afternoon.
“It's been fun playing with Blue, just going from playing against him last year and playing with him this year,” said Lawrence, the Vanderbilt transfer who finished with 13 points, including a trio of trees.
“You know, going against him last year, we kind of saw him as a guy that's just getting in the game, maybe make a few jump shots and that,” Lawrence added. “But now I feel like he has a better overall game.”
White was impressed.
“He made winning plays - 11 rebounds. He was efficient. He passed up some shots and had some good passes,” White said. “Played a really good floor game. Blue played as hard as I've seen him play. We've got to build on that.”
Mount St. Mary’s transfer Dakota Leffew had his jump shot working.
Leffew poured in a team-high 23 points, 15 coming on 5-of-10 attempts on 3-pointers. Demary Jr. added 17 points for the Bulldogs, followed by Newell with 14, Lawrence with 13, and Cain with 12.
White cited his team’s improved communication as the reason for Sunday’s improved play.
“We were really sharp in our exhibitions. Unfortunately, you don't get any credit for those. I just thought we took a step backward in terms of how we handle playing in front of our fans and the fact we were a heavy favorite,” White said. “Those are things that I may not have done a good enough job talking about on the front end of that first one. Today I thought we got back really in preparation for this one. Probably 72 hours ago we got back to just focusing on smaller details, especially on the glass and on the defensive end. We took more pride in defending. I just thought simply we played harder, and responded better to some adversities throughout the game, to some missed shots early. We just played better.”
Georgia – which dominated the boards – held a 25-8 edge in rebounding and limited the Tigers to just one field goal over the final 6:12 to go into the locker room with a 47-29 lead.
Notes
…Freshman Savo Drezgic made his first appearance of the year in the first half and immediately made a contribution with a basket from three-point range for his first collegiate points.
…The 28 points marked the largest margin of victory by a Mike White-led Georgia team (the previous high was 22)
…The 23 rebounds by Texas Southern were the fewest allowed by Georgia since allowing 22 at Texas A&M on Feb 22, 2022.
…The 12 blocks by Georgia was the most by the team since having 12 vs Vanderbilt on Jan 9, 2019 – the last time above 12 was on Nov 19, 2007, vs Jacksonville State.
…This was the 2nd time under White that Georgia has had 30 free throws made (the other was Dec 1, 2023, vs Mercer) – the last time above 30 was on Nov 18, 2014, vs Stony Brook)
…Leffew had 4 and 5 3-point field goals made in his last 2 games played with Mount St Mary’s. With the first two games as a Georgia Bulldog, he now has 4+ 3-pt FG made in four straight games (his longest career streak). He had 3 in a row from Jan 7 to Jan 19)
…Cain’s double-double was the first by a Bulldogs guard since Jabri Abdur-Rahim against Notre Dame in 2022.
…Demary Jr. became the 2nd Georgia player under White to have 15+ points, 5+ rebounds, 5+ assists in a game (Terry Roberts did it four times)
…Newell became the first Georgia player with three-plus blocks in back-to-back games since Nic Claxton in his last two games of 2018-19.
