Tyrin Lawrence scored 13 of his 14 points in the second half as Georgia rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat South Carolina State 79-72 and run its win streak to seven in a nonconference finale for both teams on Sunday.
Lawrence had only a free throw to show for his efforts in the first half for Georgia’s Bulldogs (12-1), who improved to 9-0 at home. But he made 4 of 6 shots with a 3-pointer and all four of his foul shots after Georgia trailed 41-24 at intermission.
RJ Godfrey also scored 14 for Georgia and he added six rebounds. Asa Newell and reserve Dakota Leffew both scored 12. Silas Demary Jr. had 11 points and five rebounds, while De’Shayne Montgomery scored 10 off the bench.
Jayden Johnson topped South Carolina State’s Bulldogs (6-9) with 16 points. Michael Teal had 13 points and Wilson Dubinsky scored 12. All three players came off the bench.
Johnson scored 14 in the first half — including two 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds — to help South Carolina State take its big lead into the break.
Newell scored all 12 of his points in the second half to help spark the Georgia comeback. Demary also had only a free throw in the first half before scoring 10 in the rally.
Georgia didn’t grab the lead until back-to-back three-point plays by Lawrence made it 60-55 with 6:44 left to play and the Bulldogs stayed in front from there.
Georgia has not lost since an 80-69 setback to then-No. 15 Marquette.
The Bulldogs travel to play No. 16 Mississippi on Saturday in a Southeastern Conference opener. South Carolina State travels to play Morgan State on Saturday in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener.
Fast Facts
• After Lawrence and Godfrey’s 14-point efforts, graduate guard Dakota Leffew and freshman forward Asa Newell followed with 12 points each while sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr. posted 11 points and sophomore guard De’Shayne Montgomery finished with 10.
• With the victory, the Bulldogs’ 12-1 start matches its best start to a season in 94 years dating back to the 1930-31 season.
• De’Shayne Montgomery notched four steals on the day, marking a new season high while sitting one shy of his career-high of five (posted twice as a member of Mount St. Mary’s against Howard and Manhattan on Nov. 25 and Dec. 1, 2023).
• Despite a season-low 24 first-half points, Georgia responded with 55 points after the intermission, marking the most points scored in a second half this season.
• The win extends the Bulldogs’ overall winning streak to seven games, improving to 11 consecutive wins at Stegeman Coliseum as well as 27 games in home non-conference matchups in the Mike White era.
Georgia Head Coach Mike White
On the win…
“My goodness, as we talked about this morning, this team is really physical. They play really hard. There were going to be a lot of fouls called in the game. We knew that. There were going to be a lot of free throw shot. They were going to change defenses and extend their defenses throughout the game in different ways. And boy, it’s a different look than we’ll see all year, it really is. And they played really well in the first 20 until the buzzer. I mean, we were down 17 at half. And honestly, I didn’t think we came out with the wrong approach – we had a really good shoot around and we had a really good practice yesterday. Our guys were fired up to tip it up and play in front of a big crowd – I want to say our biggest crowd this year. So we’re appreciative. The crowd was a big factor there throughout the second half. We didn’t give our crowd a lot to cheer for in the first 20. They had us on our heels offensively, and they hit a couple contested threes with just a little bit of miscommunication, and their confidence grew and they finished the latter part of the first half in a big, big way. Our culture came through, it did. Our guys were saying the right thing and owning the right things individually in the locker room at halftime. We talked about winning each round of the second half by one or more, just taking one possession at a time. And I thought overall, just offensively, I thought we thought less and just played downhill with more instincts. We spent a lot of time just going over all of their changing defenses, and when they’re in a certain defense, we should be in these spots, and then he switched to this defense we should be in these spots. So it was almost, you know, paralysis by analysis, just overthinking a little bit in the first 20 and I just, we were so much better. 55 points in the second half, drawing fouls, getting downhill, making better decisions, less casual with the basketball, still too many turnovers, but just played a lot better.”
On executing in the second half…
“We were a completely different team. And again, if we don’t have a really strong culture, you lose that game, you just do. I think that team’s going to play in the NCAA Tournament. I think they’re going to win the MEAC. Their physicality, their attention to detail, with rebounding, both offensively, defensively is just elite, and they keep you off balance. And again, they were really good, and we were going to have to play really well in the second half, and we did. I mean, that was a pretty good 20 minutes first. It doesn’t matter what the name on their jerseys was, that’s a pretty good 20. That’ll be a pretty good 20 in SEC games. But it made some adjustments with press [offense] a little bit of half court stuff we talked about. Defensively, just some subtle changes, but more so just challenging that detail that led to a couple open threes. And then we needed to defend the glass better. But just our aura needed to be a little bit better, and it showed. It obviously showed right when that ball was inbounded there in the second 20, we were a different team.”
On handling South Carolina State’s defense…
“We were just so much better in the second half. I just thought we responded a little bit better to the physicality, to maybe a lack of a whistle here or a hard foul there. You could talk about certain things against teams that are pretty unique until you’re blue in the face, but until you experience it and you’ve gone through a half or a four-minute segment, you don’t really understand it. That’s as physical a team we’ve played this year, including those teams in the Bahamas. I’d probably say that that was the most physical team that we’ve played, and we drew 32 fouls. There were a lot of fouls in that game. There just were, and there’s going to be a few games like that in our league. Overall, the huge positive is you’re down 17 to a team who you’re expected to beat big, and our culture prevailed. Our guys came together, and found a way. We didn’t pout. We didn’t whine. It could have gone the other way, very, very easily. We’ve all been a part of that, and I’m proud of the way these guys came together and connected the second half.”
On improvements needed…
“We found a way to get seven offensive rebounds. We only missed 23. We shot a really high percentage, especially from two, but we’ve got to get more than that. One page we can take out of South Carolina State’s book is their attention to detail with their block outs. They were phenomenal. Somto drew fouls, and he got six rebounds. He drew seven fouls in 16 minutes. He was really efficient there, but we can’t give in to block outs, and we’ve got to do a better job ourselves. We outrebounded them by one, but our ceiling in terms of rebounding compared to those guys is much higher than that, and we’ve got to be better than that, starting Saturday.”
#10 | RJ Godfrey | Jr. | F
On being down at the half and what changed in the second half...
“We work every day. One of Coach’s big things is how we respond. Whether we are up, down, or tired, it is all about how we respond. I think this game just showed who we are as people.”
On the physicality of this game...
“They were really physical coming out to start the game. Their guards were really scrappy the whole game. I think that we handled the physicality well though in the second half and came back and got the win.”
On what he learned about himself from today’s game...
“We learned that we can fight. We were down a lot at halftime, and we just fought back. At halftime, we just looked at it as an opportunity, and we took advantage of that opportunity.”
Up Next:
The Bulldogs will open Southeastern Conference action on the road where they will face No. 16 Ole Miss on Saturday, Jan. 4 with tipoff set at 12 p.m. ET at The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
