Mike White implemented some changes he hoped would make a difference in Saturday’s rematch against Auburn.
Unfortunately, the top-ranked team was simply just too much for the Bulldogs, who despite some surprisingly valiant play, fell 82-70 to the Tigers Saturday at Neville Arena.
A 14.5 underdog, Georgia was able to keep the margin within single digits for most of the contest, getting as close as five late in the second half before Auburn (25-2, 13-1) put the game away.
“There were seven things that we changed. One of them was personnel, one of them was the routine, and one of them was how we started defensively, schematically, and offensively. We made a bunch of changes, hoping that one or two or three or four of those changes might help us get off to a better second-half start,” said White, whose team came into the contest 3-5 in conference games the Bulldogs (16-11, 4-10) led at halftime.
While Georgia never led in Saturday’s contest, at least the effort – which was questioned after last week’s second-half collapse to Missouri – was there.
“We had halftimes all week in practice, and we'll continue to do that moving forward. I thought our guys embraced that. We spent a week putting in a zone that's brand new to these guys and I thought that was a positive factor for us,” White said. “I don't think the final score was indicative of how close the game was, credit our guys. Obviously, Auburn is really, really good. They're perhaps the best team in the country.”
Preseason SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome was simply too much to handle after not playing in Auburn’s 70-68 win in Athens due to an injured ankle.
Saturday, the senior was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring a season-high 31 points in SEC play with 14 rebounds and two blocks.
“They've got four elite shooters, not good shooters, four guys that can really, really fill it up that are capable of hitting multiple threes. When the floor's a little bit extended for him (Broome), because of the attention to detail with those shooters, he's able to put his head down and draw fouls and drive it and back you down,” White said. “He just scores in a variety of ways. He's got big, soft hands, and great touch. He's an older, experienced guy with winning experience and scoring experience in this league. He's here at the end of his career (at Auburn) and he continues to get better as well.”
Bulldog freshman Asa Newell did all he could to keep Georgia in the game.
Newell was superb, scoring a team-high 20 points with five rebounds in 34 minutes.
“He was fantastic. It was a great performance. He stepped up, made big shots, and played with swagger. He has all year,” White said. “Whether he came in here and got 14 or he got 25, I wouldn't have been surprised. He's just a competitive kid that works his butt off and he's showing the whole world how talented he is. Auburn's got one of the best front lines in the country, of course. Asa was productive. Their front line was too. That was a high-level game.”
Silas Demary Jr. added 18 points for the Bulldogs, followed by Blue Cain with 13.
With No. 2 Florida up next, Georgia won’t have much time to regroup, although White feels progress was made in his team’s game against the Tigers.
“One of the things we talk a lot about in our program is not getting too high over wins and not too low over losses and keeping it all in perspective," White said. "There's been negativity from our staff to our guys led by me obviously after wins and sometimes there's positivity communicated to our guys after losses, and this was certainly one of those."
But don't get White wrong.
"I'm not sitting here celebrating the fact that we lost. We played better than we did on Saturday. We just did. We played better in the second half," he said. "We competed at a higher level. Auburn made some big plays late clock as we talked about, otherwise, it would have been even more interesting down the stretch. If we continue to play like that down the stretch of the season, I've got faith that we've got some more wins in us."
