Although there have been exceptions, closing out games hasn’t exactly been the forte for Mark Fox’s Georgia basketball team.
But against Ole Miss on Wednesday night, the opposite was certainly true as Georgia broke open a six-point game midway through the second half and turned it into a 69-47 victory over the Rebels in Oxford.
"This was a good victory over a Top-50 RPI team that we've had a lot of good battles with over the years, and we were fortunate our defense was very good," Fox said. "I feel for (Derek) Burnett who got hurt. That impacted the game, obviously. I hope he heals up quickly, but it was a great win for our team."
Losing Burnett certainly didn't help the cause for the Rebels. The third-leading scorer in the SEC, Burnett was lost in the first half due to a high ankle sprain and never returned.
But Georgia wasn't bad, either.
Although the Bulldogs shot just 40 percent from the field, Georgia played one of its better defensive games of the year, holding Ole Miss to only 27.5 percent (14-of-51) from the floor, including just 2-of-19 from three-point range.
The victory pushed the Bulldogs to 11-5 overall and 3-1 in the SEC. Ole Miss falls to 10-6 and 1-3 in conference play.
J.J. Frazier led the Bulldogs with 17 points, followed by Yante Maten with 15 and Juwan Parker with 12.
Rebel forward Sebastian Saiz was one of just two Rebels in double-figures with 11, but none came easy as the Bulldogs double-teamed the talented forward for basically the entire game, something Fox said certainly was something his team typically will do.
"I could probably count on the number of times we've ever double-teamed somebody in the low post but we did with him because he is so good," Fox said. "At the end of the night I thought we did a real good job but we had a hard time defending him without fouling and ended up in the zone to keep from fouling so much. But,we fouled in that, too. But defending him was a key part of our game plan."
As for Frazier, the senior looked more like himself against the Rebels. Frazier came into the contest just a combined 1-of-10 from beyond the arc in Georgia's first three conference games, but appeared more relaxed and converted three of his seven attempts.
"He hasn't shot it well this year but I knew he would shoot it well tonight," Fox said. "We did some work the last couple of days and I was really confident that if he got a good look at the basket it was going back in."
NOTES: The Bulldogs received a scare when Frazier fell hard to the court with just over four minutes left, landing on his left hip before being helped off the court. Fortunately, Fox said the news is good. "J.J. is fine," Fox said. "He could have gone back in the game. He was running up and down the side. He'll be fine." ... The Bulldogs return to action when they travel to Florida this Saturday for a noon game.
