Of all Georgia’s defeats since the start of SEC play, Wednesday’s 75-59 loss to South Carolina might have been the most disappointing of all to head coach Tom Crean.
Oh, the Bulldogs have lost games by wide margins. But somehow, this one felt different.
“I told our team after the game that every night in this league, it’s a fight. It doesn’t matter what night; it doesn’t matter what venue–it’s a fight,” Crean said. “If you’re not ready for that fight, if you’re not ready to get involved in that fight, this is the outcome.”
It wasn’t pretty. Not by a long shot.
The Bulldogs (12-12, 2-9) were whipped in every conceivable way by a Gamecock squad (14-9, 6-4) that won for the fifth time in their last six games.
South Carolina destroyed Georgia on the boards, out-rebounding the Bulldogs 45-33 while holding Crean’s squad to a mere 34.6 percent from the field (18 of 52). Georgia converted just three of its 24 three-point attempts. It marked the worst percentage for the team since making good on just 1 of 20 attempts against Tennessee in 1996.
“They just outplayed us–in every aspect of the game,” said freshman Anthony Edwards, who led the Bulldogs with 16 points.
However, as Crean saw it, Georgia’s issues had more to do with the inability to match the toughness of South Carolina.
“We were not ready to be in a fight tonight with South Carolina. There wasn’t an indication with any of our practices; they were good. It got physical at the very beginning, they stood us up, we quit cutting as much, and we got our heads down because we weren’t scoring,” Crean said. “The fight is the loose balls; the fight is the rebounds; the fight is the communication when it’s not going well; the fight is the continuing to cut and move. There are a lot of things that go into a fight, and we didn’t do that.
“We don’t have the size against a team like South Carolina, but that’s not an excuse not to fight, and we’ve got to regroup. We’ve got to regroup quickly.”
The outcome was never in doubt—even when the Bulldogs tried to make a run midway through the second half, when Donnell Gresham Jr. converted a four-point play to draw within 14 at the 11:23 mark.
However, Jermaine Cousinard took care of that, nailing a three-pointer of his own on South Carolina’s next trip down the court to push the lead back to 17 at the Gamecocks never looked back.
A.J. Lawson led South Carolina with 20 points, followed by Cousinard with 14, Keyshawn Bryant with 12 and Maik Kotsar with 11.
For South Carolina’s part, the first half couldn’t have gone much better. The Gamecocks shot a respectable 47.1 percent (16 of 34 from the field), and held a commanding 25-14 edge in rebounding.
Lawson, meanwhile, led the way with 11 points for South Carolina which led by as many as 22 points.
Georgia, on the other hand …
The Bulldogs couldn’t have been much worse, going just 1 of 17 from the field to start the game.
“You’ve got to keep trusting your shot and if you’re open you’ve got to shoot,” said senior Jordan Harris, who chipped in with 10 points. “When you’re in a slump there’s no way you can get out unless you shoot. You’ve got to keep shooting.”
Georgia would stage a mini rally, cutting the lead to 14 on a jumper by Edwards with 2:53 left in the half until the Gamecocks outscored Georgia 8-3 over the final 1:50 to go into the locker room up 38-20.
Crean was asked in his post-game press conference if he was discouraged by his team’s season thus far.
“Discouraged? No, disappointed. Discouraged? No, I don’t really get discouraged,” he said. “I want them to play. I was disappointed for our fans, I was disappointed in our effort … you want your guys to be successful, so discouraged, I don’t really want to go there. Angry? Disappointed? Yeah, those things happen. We’ve got to overcome this lack of aggressiveness because we’ve had it in some pretty good cases. Tonight, we didn’t have it.
Georgia travels to Texas A&M on Saturday.