Georgia head coach Tom Crean warned anyone who would listen that with 10 newcomers on this year’s Bulldog basketball squad, lessons are going to be learned each and every time his team takes the court.
Tuesday night’s contest against The Citadel was one of those occasions, as the Southern Conference school gave the Bulldogs all they could handle in a 95-86 win.
“For it to be the second game of the season, to get a lesson like that, and the urgency we have to have defensively, is great for us. Fortunately, we got the win,” Crean said. “They were the second-highest in the country last year taking threes, and the third in most made. Half their shots were threes, and it was that way again tonight. We played fast; we did different transition drills to get ready for this type of game. But we’ve got to develop an urgency we have to have when it comes to getting back defensively.”
Twice, The Citadel (0-2) made it a one-possession game, first cutting the lead to 74-73 on a three-pointer by Hayden Brown, and again at 86-84 with just 3:04 on the clock.
But each time, the Bulldogs (2-0) would answer, ultimately closing out the game on an 8-1 run.
Six players finished in double-figures for the Bulldogs, led by freshman Anthony Edwards with 29 points, followed by Tyree Crump and Donnell Gresham Jr. who both chipped in with 13, followed by Sahvir Wheeler and Amaze Ngumezi with 10 apiece.
Edwards, who had a chance at a 30-point game before missing a late free throw, laughed as he insisted that missing out on the mark wasn’t a big deal.
“They asked me in the locker room, why did I miss that last free throw,” Edwards said. “I told them all that matters is that we got the win. I don’t really care about having 29 or 28. I can get 30; numbers don’t really matter to me.”
Brown scored 26 to lead The Citadel (0-2), which attempted 33 three-pointers, converting 14. Kaelon Harris added 14 and Kaiden Rice 10.
“You’re playing against an NBA guy, and he kind of takes over the game,” The Citadel coach Duggar Baucom said. “But I was really proud of our guys.”
The Citadel out-rebounded the Bulldogs 43-36, much to Crean’s chagrin.
“The number one issue we have now as a team—and I said this when the fall started—ism, how are we going to get our rebounding,” Crean said. “But we’ve also got to get our urgency right and our communication right defensively. To play at a pace like this tonight was a great experience for a bunch of new guys.”
The Citadel made Georgia sweat.
Trailing by as many as 10, The Citadel twice came within a basket, first within one at on a three-pointer by Brown, and within two at 84-82 with 3:01 left to play.
But that was as close as it got.
A three-point play by Edwards and a nifty spinning move by fellow freshman Wheeler helped push Georgia’s lead to 94-86 with just over a minute to play.
Georgia jumped out to a 48-40 halftime lead behind 10 points each from Edwards and Ngumezi.
The Bulldogs shot 44 percent from the field (17 of 38), in what as a clean first half, as Georgia committed just three turnovers over the first 20 minutes, compared to 12 for the Citadel.
Georgia never trailed as the first half saw the Bulldogs lead by as many as 10 points with 1:58 left, on three-pointers by Edwards, Brown, and Harris. The Citadel brought the Bulldogs of the Southern Conference within five.
Georgia returns to action Friday with a home game against Delaware State, while The Citadel hosts Campbell on Saturday in Charleston.
