Saturday’s game against Charleston Southern was one of those rare opportunities for Georgia to play a lot of players and have a lot of fun in the process.
The result was what you might expect, a 84-64 win over Charleston Southern, the Bulldogs’ final home contest of the calendar year.
Yante Maten once again showed why he’s one of the best in the SEC.
The junior – who came in averaging 20.6 points per game – was simply too much for the Buccaneers (4-6), scoring 30 points, equaling his season-high against Kansas.
"Regardless of who I play, I go in with the same mentality regardless of who it is against," Maten said. "It doesn't matter if I'm going against 7-footers, or 6-footers - it doesn't matter. I'm going to come in and play how I play and it usually works."
For those counting, Saturday’s effort marked the 26th-straight game in double-figures for Maten dating back to last season’s Jan. 30 game against Baylor.
"Yante had a big night. He was bigger than everybody on the court," head coach Mark Fox said. "He took advantage of his size, but we got him the ball and he played very unselfishly and played a pretty complete game for the most part."
Maten wasn’t alone.
J.J. Frazier chipped in 14 points, while Derek Ogbeide added nine with Juwan Parker leading the defensive effort for the Bulldogs (7-3) with nine rebounds.
But the story of the game was Maten.
Of his 11 field goals, two came from three-point range as the Michigan native continues to show why he's considered such a versatile performer.
"Now that I'm making the three-point shot, they're (opponents) starting to close in on me a little faster," Maten said. "But sometimes when you are in transition, you're really not looking for a big to pull up at the three-point line and I think that's really helped me out a lot."
The outcome was never in doubt.
It took the Bulldogs less than six minutes to build a double-digit lead and head coach Mark Fox spent the rest of the first half freely subbing in all of his players, ultimately going into the half with a 46-30 lead.
Maten - who added six rebounds and an assist - was a huge part of the first-half story.
The junior forward was unstoppable, hitting all seven of his shots for 19 points in 14 minutes for Georgia, which shot 55 percent for the first half including 6-of-12 from three-point range.
Twelve players played at least six minutes each in the first half as the Bulldogs led by as many as 20 points before settling for the 16-point advantage at the half.
Fox was asked how his rotations may look now that his Bulldogs are about to enter their upcoming three-game road stretch.
"I think our rotation is largely determined by matchups and how guys are playing," Fox said. "Our depth is of greater quality today than it was three weeks ago. Is our depth quality enough to play 10-11 guys away from home? We'll have to see. I do think we're getting better, but there is a lot of growth left in this team."
NOTES: Freshman Jordan Harris made his second consecutive start for the Bulldogs. … Saturday’s win was the Bulldogs’ 500th at Stegeman Coliseum. Georgia is now 500-299 in 54 years at the facility. … Georgia returns to action on Tuesday when the Bulldogs travel to Georgia Tech, the first of three road games for the Bulldogs which will culminate with the SEC opener at Auburn on Dec. 28.
