On Monday, Georgia head coach Tom Crean talked about not staring at ghosts every time games became tough for his Bulldog basketball team.
Tuesday night at Stegeman Coliseum, an exorcism was performed.
As a result, the Bulldogs snapped an eight-game losing streak to come away with their first SEC win by beating Alabama, 82-76.
“I think there’s a lot (of relief), I would guess there is some relief, but it’s like I told the guys before the game, as corny as it is, you’ve got to play with joy,” Crean said. “They were happy, they weren’t overly giddy, but they were excited. We just had to get this thing started. There’s some relief there, but mostly it’s happiness for them and happiness for the staff. But here in about 30 minutes, it will be on to Vanderbilt.”
Senior Aaron Cook agreed.
“It was a great win. We needed this one,” Cook said. “But I hope we’re not done. We’ve got to keep building on it.”
Georgia (6-14, 1-6) trailed for the entire second half before Braelen Bridges scored two from inside the paint to put the Bulldogs in front, 69-68, with 3:24 left in the game.
The Bulldogs would not trail again, thanks largely to some clutch work at the free-throw line.
After taking the lead, Georgia went to the free-throw line 14 times, converting 12. The game became a little hairy late, when Alabama cut the margin to five with 15.1 seconds. But after a missed three-point attempt by Keon Ellis, the Bulldogs grabbed the rebound and were able to secure the win.
“It’s (converting free throws) is very important. This is a very physical league,” Cook said. “Everybody is really aggressive defensively, so we know we’re going to get fouled night in and night out. Coach Crean does a very good job of implementing free throws into our practice plans. Tonight, it was a big part of why we got the win.”
Four Bulldogs finished in double figures, led by Cook with 15, Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Bridges with 13 each, and Kario Oquendo who had 11.
“This felt very good; we’ve been working very hard for this moment,” Bridges said. “We’ve just been taking it one game at time, and tonight we finally got that W.”
Top scorer Jaden Shackelford scored 20 to lead the Crimson Tide (13-7, 4-4), but only tallied four in the second half.
Alabama jumped out to a 42-36 halftime lead after the Bulldogs built an early eight-point advantage at 27-19.
But just as quickly, the margin disappeared.
An 8-0 run by the Tide quickly tied the game at 27, before one of Shackelford’s five first-half three-pointers put Alabama up by six for the first time.
The Crimson Tide converted 15 of their 28 shots, including six three-pointers in the first half.
Georgia shot 46.4 percent (13 of 28).
“We got better between South Carolina and tonight,” Crean said. “I told the guys, you don’t gain an edge from momentum; you gain an edge from preparation and practice. We came back here after I got back from my Milwaukee experience with the hall of fame, practiced for about an hour and a half. We came back yesterday, and nobody was hanging their heads. Tonight, we didn’t see those ghosts when things started to go bad.”
The Bulldogs return to action Saturday evening at Vanderbilt.
