There wasn’t much drama during Georgia’s game Saturday night against visiting George Mason. The Patriots had it all the way, rolling to an 80-67 win.
Georgia never led. The loss ended a modest two-game winning streak.
The contest was the first for Georgia without third-leading scorer and top rebounder Jailyn Ingram, out for the year with a torn ACL. However, Crean did not use his absence as an excuse.
“No excuses. We have to be more physical. We have to be more tuned in to what we have to do awareness-wise and game plan-wise,” head coach Tom Crean said. “We’re not in position. The hardest thing in basketball is to keep playing really hard and really good defense if you’re shot isn’t falling.”
Another poor night from the field did not help the Bulldogs’ cause.
Georgia shot a mere 33.9 percent (20 of 59) and did not tally a single field goal for the last 6:30 of the game.
“I know we didn’t make a ton tonight, but we’re going to make shots. The ball is going to move. Our spacing is going to change a little bit now, because we will play Noah (Baumann) more. We will play Dalen (Ridgnal) more,” Crean said. “It was the first time that the guys were in the roles that they were in today. I’m more concerned with the process of the lack of the attention to the detail of what we needed to do in the game plan than I am anything else.”
Braelen Bridges led Georgia (4-6) with 13 points, followed by Baumann with 11, including a trio of three-pointers. D’Shawn Schwartz and Josh Oduro led George Mason (6-5) with 21 and 20 points, respectively.
“I think the impact that Jailyn had on our team showed a little bit tonight,” Baumann said. “The whole last couple of weeks when we were preparing for this game, we had 11 days off, I sort of made it my own duty that I wanted to help this team out as much as I could. If I had to step in and play the four, which I haven’t played for a while, I want to do that. I want to help this team win as much as possible
The game was never truly in doubt.
After trailing by eight at the half, the Bulldogs would climb within 67-61 with 4:31 left on a pair of free throws by Christian Wright. However, George Mason answered with a 6-0 run to push the lead back to double-digits. It remained so the rest of the game.
“We got it to a two-possession game,” Crean said. “The problem for us, at times, was that we didn’t follow the game plan and defensively. That just can’t happen. We can’t be bumping the cross screen one time and not bumping it the next time. It has to be consistent. It has to be ongoing.”
Georgia returns to action Monday night against Western Carolina before hosting East Tennessee State on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs then break for Christmas before hosting Gardner-Webb on Dec. 29. Georgia opens SEC play at home against Texas A&M on Jan. 4.
