Georgia at South Carolina

WHERE: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, S.C.

WHEN: Saturday, 2 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 13-9, 4-5; South Carolina 18-4, 8-1

TV/RADIO: ESPN2 (Beth Mowins, Dalen Cuff); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone).

Probable Starters:

South Carolina: USC: Sindarius Thornwell (19.3 ppg), Duane Notice (10.0), P.J. Dozier (13.6), Maik Kotsar (6.9), Chris Silva (9.6).

Georgia: William Jackson II (3.6 ppg), J.J. Frazier (15.9), Juwan Parker (9.4), Yante Maten (19.8), Derek Ogbeide (7.5).

Head Mark Fox and star forward Yante Maten appeared to have different takes on a question Friday when asked how urgent a situation the Bulldogs face when they take on South Carolina Saturday afternoon (2 p.m., ESPN2) at the Colonial Center in Columbia.

At 13-9, Georgia’s post-season aspirations have gotten slimmer with each loss. But while Fox said he believes his Bulldogs' “play with a great determination to win,” he prefers not to place any undue pressure on his squad, stressing that there is still plenty of opportunities for his team to accomplish any goals it set out to achieve before the season began.

Maten … well.

“It’s definitely a sense of urgency, but we can’t think about the past,” Maten said. “We have to learn from the past but we can’t dwell on it. We’ve got to make sure we’re eliminating a couple of mistakes, so we can get those close wins.”

So far, that hasn’t happened.

Georgia has dropped four of its past five SEC games, including overtime road losses to Florida and Kentucky, sandwiched around the team’s debacle at Texas A&M which included a malfunction of the game clock with 5.6 seconds left to play.

Fox was asked if he feared Tuesday’s overtime loss to Kentucky could set the stage for another letdown against South Carolina, like what happened to the Bulldogs after their game with Texas A&M. Four nights later, Alabama thumped Georgia, 80-60.

“The ending of those two games were entirely different. The end of regulation at Kentucky, they made a shot to get us to overtime. But we competed well in the game, had a chance in overtime, but didn’t finish it,” Fox said. “Kentucky did, and give them credit, but those games we lost in two totally different ways. Not that any loss is easy to swallow, but because of how the A&M game ended, that was a little more difficult for everybody to handle.”

South Carolina, meanwhile, is playing its best ball of the year.

The Gamecocks (18-4, 8-1) are tied with Kentucky for the top spot in the SEC standings and coming off an 88-63 rout of LSU in Baton Rouge.

They’re also getting healthier.

Guard P.J. Dozier (13.8 ppg) appears to be healthy after suffering from back spasms against Kentucky, while fellow guard Sindarius Thornwell is playing his best basketball of the year, scoring 20-plus points in four of his last seven games.

The Gamecocks beat the Bulldogs in Athens 67-61 back on Jan. 4.

“I think South Carolina, obviously, and ourselves, have played some very competitive games the last couple of years. We know each other’s teams well. Obviously, they continue to evolve with their current team like we do,” Fox said. “I think your preparation is a little bit easier the second game because you’re doing things for a second time. Teams don’t totally change, so hopefully we’ll have an understanding of what we need to do and how we need to execute.”

Especially on the defensive end.

Fox cites South Carolina as one of the nation’s best defensive teams around, and the stats would seem to back him up.

South Carolina currently leads the nation in three-point field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 25.7 percent from beyond the arc this season. In overall games, Carolina is tops in scoring defense (60.9), FG% defense (37.4%) and 3-point FG% defense (25.7%), and is first in steals (8.2 per game). In strictly league games, Carolina is first in scoring defense (63.1), in FG% defense (39.4%), in 3-point FG% defense (25.2%) and first in steals (8.6 per game).

“South Carolina’s defense is exceptional. They may be the most physical and effective in America. It’s a very difficult game to play clean offense. Even if you execute the things perfectly, they have a physicality about them,” Fox said. “They defend every cut, every pass, contest every shot, so they make everything difficult in your execution. It’s a challenge to play well against them offensively because they’re terrific, and a team that has totally bought into how they play on that end.”