Georgia’s second-half struggles have been well-documented.
Over the Bulldogs’ six-game losing streak, three of those defeats--at home to Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida--came after leading at the half.
This was once again the position Georgia found itself in at Vanderbilt. This time, however, the Bulldogs found some answers, cruising past Vanderbilt Wednesday night in Nashville, 76-64.
The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for Georgia, which won for the first time since defeating LSU on January 24.
“I would argue it was our best performance of the year. You can go back to our South Carolina win on the road, and I’m not sure all of us played well,” head coach Mike White said. “This is the first time all year where everyone that played, played well. The way we shared it, the way we moved. We didn’t shoot it great, but we made some shots. But overall, our demeanor, our consistency, our mental toughness, and our selflessness were as good as it’s been all year.”
That was certainly true in the second half, which saw the Bulldogs commit just four turnovers while avoiding any significant scoring droughts and defending more to White’s liking.
“We executed at a really high level in the half-court and did a pretty good job screening, cutting, and playing with great composure,” White said. “Playing on the road in the SEC, we valued the basketball at a high level in the second half.”
The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for the Bulldogs, who improved to 15-11 overall, 5-8 in the SEC.
“All of the leaders, really everybody on the team, hasn’t been satisfied with the way we’ve been starting the second half,” Jabri Abdur-Rahim said. “We put an emphasis on trying to get stops defensively in the second half. I feel like our offense was flowing really well, and we were going to score in the second half.”
The Bulldogs received some of the most balanced scoring they've had all year.
All nine players who saw action scored for the Bulldogs, with eight of the nine tallying at least five points.
Noah Thomasson led the way with 17 points--all in the first half--followed by Abdur-Rahim with 13.
The Bulldogs also dominated the boards 39-26 and outscored the Commodores (7-19, 2-11) in the paint, 32-20.
“The ball, as that thing moves, it energizes your team. It just does. We’re all human, we all want to touch the basketball, we want to get shots, and we all want to be part of the action. I think our guys did a good job of just buying into our shot tonight,” White said. “Off the top of my head, I only show one shot that was really an average shot. We got a lot of really good looks or the right one for that possession.”
The first half was one of the Bulldogs’ better efforts.
Georgia never trailed, shooting 59.3 percent (16 of 27), including an 8 of 17 effort on 3-pointers.
Five of the 3-pointers came courtesy of Thomasson, who equaled the number he had Saturday against Florida.
Thomasson’s 17 points led the Bulldogs, who led by as many as 18 before settling for the 44-28 halftime lead.
