At some point, Georgia is going to need someone to step up and give the Bulldogs a third scoring option, someone who will be a consistent threat for double-figures every time the Bulldogs take the court.
But until that happens, Yante Maten and J.J. Frazier must continue carrying the load like they did in the Bulldogs’ 84-78 win over a scrappy Furman squad Thursday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
Frazier led the way with 28 points, followed by Maten with 27 as no other Bulldog tallied more than eight.
“I think finding that third person is going to be really important, but I think we’ll be getting that from a lot of people, like tonight, it was peppered everywhere, other than me and J.J.,” Maten said. “Coach (Mark Fox) is just really trying to feel out who is playing well, who is not and we have the depth to make that adjustment in the game. If you’re feeling it, coach is going to let you play.”
Two players who may fit in that equation are Juwan Parker and Mike Edwards. Parker enjoyed a nice second half, finishing with eight points while Edwards came off the bench to add eight points and lead the Bulldogs with eight rebounds.
But the story of the game was Maten and Frazier, who jumped to 38th all-time in scoring at Georgia as his 28 points brought his career total to 1,045. Maten, meanwhile, finished in double-figures for the 38th time in his career.
“I haven’t done the math but if they go 9-of-13 and 7-of-13 percentage, then we’ll be happy,” Fox said. “They understand how we want to play and I thought they left some food on the plate, to be honest with you. There was more out there for them but it was good to see those guys be that productive and efficient.”
The Paladins (1-2) made the Bulldogs (2-1) earn every point they scored.
Earlier this week, Furman knocked off projected Conference USA champion UAB in Birmingham, handing the Blazers their first home loss in 26 games and appeared on the verge of making it two in a row against Georgia.
Furman managed a trio of one-point leads in the second half against the Bulldogs, the last coming at 58-57 on a jumper by Kris Acox, who led four Paladins in double-figures with 17 points.
But that was as close they got as Georgia went on a 11-3 run over the next three minutes to take control 69-60 with 3:20 left to play.
Furman would get no closer than the final 84-78 score as Georgia shot 52.8 percent from the floor (28-of-53) and outrebounded the Paladins 32-23.
“We were very concerned on how we could defend. I haven’t been pleased with our defense, although the other night, our numbers will tell you a different story,” Fox said. “We haven’t played good defense. Furman has an excellent offensive team and we were concerned about having to guard them coming into the game and I don’t think we did a great job.”
The Bulldogs led 36-31 at the half as Maten and Frazier combined for 28 of the team’s 35 points.
In fact, Maten was a one-man show to start the contest as he scored the first six points and pulled down his team’s first four rebounds for the Bulldogs, who led by as much as nine. Maten finished the first half with 15 points.
As for Frazier, the senior guard got off to his best start in three games, tallying 11 points, including back-to-back three-pointers enabling Georgia to extend a two-point lead to eight with 5:45 left in the first half.
“They’ve got a nice basketball team, they’re going to win a lot of games, but we had a lot of guys chip in,” Fox said. “Our two big guns showed up like they should, but we also had a lot of other guys chip in which was good to see.”
NOTES: Georgia returns to action on Monday when they travel to Kansas City to take on George Washington in the semifinals of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic with a game on Tuesday against either UAB or Kansas. … The Bulldogs return home Friday, Nov. 25 against Gardner-Webb. ... Thursday's attendance was announced at 5,923.
