AUBURN, Ala. – It seemed improbable, Georgia was down 12 points to Auburn in a raucous road environment. Shortly thereafter, the lead became inevitable and the Bulldogs completed a comeback for the first time this season.
Georgia had been in this situation before, against Clemson, Marquette and Oakland. The Bulldogs were able to make it interesting but unable to get over the final hump. On Thursday, that changed as Georgia had two significant runs to pull out a 96-84 victory over Auburn.
“I think (it) really helped us is the fact that we’ve had a couple of road games already,” Fox said. “We had to play at Clemson, which was a really tough environment. We played up in Detroit the other night in a really tough environment. I thought our team grew up some after those games, even though we lost. That allowed us to hang in there today and make a little bit of a comeback there and win it.”
The comeback for the Bulldogs was quite dramatic. The Tigers were on a rampage from deep in the first-half, going 7-for-14 and placing Georgia in a deep hole to climb out of. The final period didn’t start out much better, with Georgia unable to gain ground and make an early statement.
Then came the big runs, the Bulldogs were able to key in on the 3-point line, holding the Tigers to only two conversions from beyond the arc. The defensive success was able to turn into points on the other end, especially from Georgia’s two stars, J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten, in which 35 of the duo’s 58 points came in the game’s final period.
Georgia was able to take total control after taking its first lead, and the team-wide efforts led to the 27-point swing by the Bulldogs.
“We weren’t playing too much defense at the beginning of the game,” Maten said. “Coach Fox told us we needed to guard the 3-point line coming into the game. We came into the game, and we didn’t do that. The first three was actually on me. Coach told us, ‘If we don’t play any defense, we’re not going to win.’ We tried to step it up on defense and make sure that we were making plays on offense.”
Georgia was in need of a key win, after falling to Oakland nearly a week ago. In addition, the Bulldogs won their conference opener since 2014, beating Missouri on the road.
From this point on, the slate will only get tougher for Georgia, including a matchup with South Carolina looming on Jan. 4. Thus, Georgia must move on past this milestone of winning a conference game on the road.
“We always say that the first win is always the hardest one. For us, getting the first one is always key," Frazier said. "We always say, ‘At midnight, we have to flush it and move on.’ We never dwell on a win or a loss. We just have to move on and play well.”
Fox believes that Auburn provides a sample of what a team endures during a conference slate, and he notices the challenges that any team will face throughout the next 18 games.
“I’ll tell you what, this league is better than it was last year,” he said. “There are a lot of really good teams. Every game is going to be hard. As emotional and hard fought as this game was for both us and Auburn, we’re both going to have one just as hard here in a few days. When you win one you have to take advantage of it because they are so hard to get.”
