There are comebacks, and then there are comebacks.
Wednesday night’s stunning 68-66 victory in Tallahassee over Florida State, on Justin Hill’s jumper with one second left, gave the Georgia Bulldogs a win that qualified as the latter.
The Bulldogs (4-3) trailed by 17 points with just 7:53 to play, before Georgia went on a 21-2 run to grab a 64-63 lead on a three-pointer by Jabri Abdur-Rahim with 2:29 to go.
“What a response. We talk about responding to adversity every day in practice. We miss a drill and we get in line, because there’s an accountability for it; how are you going to respond?” head coach Mike White said. “Down 17, we had that conversation again, how are we going to respond? I was saying let’s play with pride, but I don’t know who it was, I think it was Jabri, who said ‘No, no, we’ve got time to win this game.”
That’s just what the Bulldogs did.
The two teams would trade baskets before De’Ante Green made a free throw to tie the game at 66 with 27 seconds left.
Following a 30-second timeout at the 19-second mark, the Bulldogs worked for the final shot, which Hill converted with just one second left, bringing the team pouring onto the court.
Freshman Silas Demary Jr. led the Bulldogs with a career-best 15 points, followed by Hill with 13, while Abdur-Rahim and R.J. Melendez added 12 each. Melendez also pulled down 11 rebounds for his first double-double as a Bulldog.
Based on the way Georgia played for the first 33 minutes, Wednesday’s comeback was about as improbable as they come.
After a horrendous first half that saw Georgia convert just 7 of 24 shots, the Bulldogs were lucky only to be down four points when the second stanza got underway.
The Bulldogs would tie the game at 37 with 12:27 to go, only to see the Seminoles rip off 24 of the next 28 points to build what looked like an insurmountable advantage at 61-44 with 7:53 left.
“A 24-4 run to finish it out against a program that wins a game like that down the stretch,” White said. “Florida State has 14 straight overtime games. The culture here to win those types of games. We’ve got a lot of respect for the program here. But for us to come here and get the one that we did speaks volumes about the resiliency, the mental toughness, the resolve, and the mental connectivity of a team with nine new players. This was a huge win for us.”
News and Notes
… Melendez tallied his second double-double (first with Georgia) by scoring 12 points to go with 11 rebounds. His other was with Illinois against Minnesota on Feb 20, 2023.
… Hill converted 4 of 7 field goals in the second half, including the game-winner, after going 1 of 3 in the first half.
… The Bulldogs made six of their final eight field goal attempts.
… Florida State came in averaging 83.2 points per game and shooting 49 percent from the field. Besides holding the Seminoles to 66 points, Florida State shot just 34.4 percent.
… Georgia’s bench outscored Florida State 26-20.
… The Bulldogs also scored 26 points in the paint to 20 for the Seminoles.
… Georgia returns to action on Friday when the Bulldogs host Mercer. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
