Georgia's lack of perimeter success has been a common topic in conversations about this year’s Bulldog basketball team. But Saturday night against Ole Miss, there were no such concerns.

One game after converting just 4 of their 26 three-point attempts against South Carolina, the Bulldogs converted 50 percent (9 of 18) to ease past the Rebels, 71-61.

“When you’re making threes, the bench goes crazy; you get a certain jolt of energy,” sophomore guard Sahvir Wheeler said. “We shot good threes; we got them off offensive rebounds, ball reversals—we were sharing it. This was one of those nights we got it going.”

It’s fortunate for the Bulldogs they did. Once again, the Bulldogs were beaten on the boards, 40-30 (23-10 on the offensive end), and the Dawgs were just 10 of 20 from the free-throw line.

However, thanks to a 55.7 percent effort from the field (26 of 47) and some tenacious defense that held Ole Miss (8-8, 3-6) to just 35.9 percent shooting (23 of 64), the Bulldogs were able to win the game going away.

“We can control the free throws, and we gave them too many second-chance points. But I think the fact they shot 36 percent and 15 percent (on three-pointers) might be the story of the game, as far as how our defense played,” head coach Tom Crean said. “Bottom line, we did make some threes, we had good ball movement, we had 16 assists. What we didn’t get in second-chance points, and what we left on the table at the free-throw line—we needed those threes—but we also needed those one-shot stops to get ourselves going on the break.”

Wheeler and Tye Fagan led Georgia with 13 points each, followed by Andrew Garcia with 11 and Toumani Camara with 10. Wheeler would have had more, but uncharacteristically struggled from the free-throw line, making just 3 of 11.

“I honestly don’t know,” Wheeler said of the free throws. “Everyone felt good, but I think I was psyching myself out toward the end because I knew I was missing them. But we got the win, so I’m going to wipe it off, and get back to shooting more free throws in practice.”

Georgia led basically the entire game, trailing just twice at 2-0 and 10-9. Still, the Rebels hung around, and after falling behind by 12 in the second half, cut the lead to just three at 52-49 with 10:29 to go.

Following a timeout to settle his team, the Bulldogs outscored the Rebels 10-4 to extend the margin to nine.

Ole Miss would only get as close as seven points during the rest of the game and was held scoreless by the Bulldogs for the final 3:41.

“Coach just told us to stay positive, to make sure our head was still in the game,” Camara said of the timeout. “From that point, we were able to regroup as a team. We did each other’s jobs and got it done on the defensive end.”

Ole Miss’ top scorer Devontae Shuler can tell you about that.

After scoring 24 points against Georgia in the earlier meeting in Oxford, the senior was held to just 11 on Saturday, making just 4 of his 14 shots.

“I thought our team really fought. But the last ten minutes, Georgia kind of took over from a physical standpoint with the second shots, 50-50 balls," Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. "Our team held together until that time. That’s all we'll do tomorrow. We’ll watch the last 12 minutes of the game when they chased every ball down and got rebounds."

Georgia jumped out to a 37-34 halftime lead, due largely to converting 6 of its 9 three-point attempts.

Four different players were responsible for the effort: two from Kier, and one each from Wheeler, P.J. Horne, and Christian Brown.

Otherwise, the Bulldogs would not have been so fortunate.

Eleven early turnovers did Georgia absolutely no favors, while Ole Miss dominated the boards, outrebounding the Bulldogs 19-11.

Georgia returns to action Tuesday at Auburn.

Boxscore

• Georgia is 76-45 all-time versus Ole Miss, including a 42-14 advantage in Athens. The Bulldogs now have won the last three matchups against the Rebels.

• Eight different Bulldogs have scored in double-figures during the 2020-21 season , combining to produce 62 double-digit performances in UGA’s 16 games. Four Bulldogs had a double-digit scoring-output in tonight’s game

• Wheeler's double-digit effort (13 points) marked the13th time this season and the 24th in his career. Wheeler entered the game at 18th overall in the SEC for scoring with 38 field goals, seven three-point shots, and 24 free throws—averaging 13.4 points per game.

• Camara posted a double-figure game with 10 points for the 12th time this season and the 20th in his career.

• Garcia had his ninth double-digit performance with 11 points.

• Fagan chalked up a double-digit game for the seventh time this season and the 10th time in his career, with a tally of 13 points.

• Georgia was hot off the bench with 19 points coming from non-starting players. Ole Miss got only 9.

• Coming into this game, Georgia ranked first in assists in the SEC. The Bulldogs had a total of 232 assists and an average of 15.5 per game.