A bouquet for the eyes it was not. Embarrassing? You might say that.

Nevertheless, Georgia moved to 3-0 Sunday by beating Texas A&M Corpus-Christi Sunday at Stegeman Coliseum, 68-65.

It shouldn’t have been that tough.

This was the same Texas A&M Corpus-Christi team that edged Our Lady of the Lakes 69-68 and lost to Baylor 70-46 in its first two games.

However, Bulldog mistakes kept this one way more interesting than it should have been.

Georgia committed 24 turnovers, which the Bulldogs somehow overcame in the final four minutes after the Islanders tied the game to sneak away with the three-point victory.

Yante Maten led the Bulldogs with 19, followed by Rayshaun Hammonds with 15. Sophomore Tyree Crump also enjoyed his best game of the year, chipping in with nine off the bench.

Second Half

Leading 30-16 at the half, Georgia imploded in the second as the Islanders erased a 19-point deficit to tie the game at 36 with 14 minutes remaining.

Credit more turnovers and spotty guard play as the reason why.

Georgia’s inability to create offense in a half-court setting bit the Bulldogs for a second straight game, before settling down, using a 9-0 run to go back up 45-36.

Oh, but this one wasn’t over.

The Islanders twice came back to tie, first at 49 and again at 53, before two free throws by Maten and a transition bucket by Hammonds gave Georgia a four-point lead with 3:13 to play.

However, this one would go down to the end with the Islanders having a chance to tie the game with 13.8 seconds left, only to have Myles Smith miss the first of his two free throws, leaving Georgia with a scant one-point lead.

Hammonds would then put the Bulldogs up by three by sinking his two free throws after a quick foul, before Jordan Harris sank two free throws with seven seconds left to give Georgia a three-point lead.

A three-point attempt by Joseph Kilgore hit long as the final buzzer sounded.

First Half

Georgia enjoyed a 30-16 halftime lead. But don’t let the score fool you. It was a sloppy 20 minutes.

It didn’t start that way as the Dawgs jumped out to an 11-0 lead, including a 3-pointer by Turtle Jackson and four points by Derek Ogbeide.

That’s when it started to get ugly

After committing 17 and 15 turnovers their first two games, the Bulldogs committed seven in the first 8 minutes-plus, going scoreless over a nearly four-minute stretch.

Fortunately for Georgia, the Islanders couldn’t take advantage. Texas A&M CC made just 1 one of its first 16 shots, before Hammonds righted the Bulldogs’ ship with back-to-back 3's to push the lead to 17-2.

Oh, but those pesky turnovers.

For those counting, both teams combined to commit 27 in the first half (15 for Georgia, 13 for Texas A&M CC).

Maten’s nine points led the first-half effort for the Bulldogs who led by as many as 19 before the Islanders closed to 14 at the half.

He’s back

Sunday’s game marked the return of Jordan Harris, who was held out by Fox the first two games for unspecified reasons.

Harris finished with seven points, including a big basket to extend Georgia's lead to 64-60 with 37 seconds left and two free throws with 7.5 seconds left to extend the margin to 68-65.

Next Up

Georgia heads west later this week to take part in the Wooden Legacy Classic in California with a game at Cal-State Fullerton. The Bulldogs’ next home game is Dec. 5 against Winthrop.