On a night when Yante Maten wasn’t at his best, three other Bulldogs stepped up to pick up the scoring slack.
The result, a 71-60 victory over Ole Miss in Wednesday night’s SEC home opener before a Stegeman Coliseum crowd of 7,515.
Maten, who came in averaging 19.2, only tallied 15 against the Rebels, but thanks to three of his friends, the Bulldogs (10-3, 1-1) were able ease to the victory, staying perfect in seven home games so far, this season.
Juwan Parker was the story, not only scoring a career-high 18 points, but collecting his first career-double-double with 11 of Georgia’s 41 rebounds. Derek Ogbeide also helped pick up the slack with 14 points and eight boards, while sophomore guard Jordan Harris came off the bench to tally a season-high 12 points.
“I didn’t think we did a very good job in the second half getting Yante the ball. They obviously made some adjustments the second half, but what’s why you have a team,” head coach Mark Fox said. “Juwan, Jordan came in and were terrific. It can’t always be just Yante. So, it’s good to win a game and play well when he doesn’t have to do all the work.” Fox also liked what he saw defensively.
The Bulldogs held Ole Miss (8-6, 1-1) to just 35.7 percent shooting (25 of 70), including just 6 of 26 on three-pointers.
Those numbers did not please Rebel head coach Andy Kennedy, who said his team’s approach was not what it needed to be.
“I thought our approach was wrong offensively and that we settled too much. I think of our six, four were in the last two minutes of the game when we were just trying to battle back the best we could,” he said. “We are a team that has had around 17 assists per game and we only had six on the night. Granted, you can’t get assists without making a field goal, but I just thought we were not getting any ball movement whatsoever and were settling for perimeter shots. When you are 6-of-26 you are in for a long night.”
Parker said he loves it when a plan comes together.
“We knew they were a great three-point shooting team,” Parker said. “We knew that was one of their main weapons. We worked all week to try to put that away.”
Harris scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half, taking up much of the offensive slack from freshman Rayshaun Hammonds who had a forgettable night, taking just eight minutes to foul out, finishing with zero points.
The game marked the fourth time in five games that Harris has earned 21 minutes or more.
“He was just so out of rhythm when the year started, he didn’t practice very well, he didn’t play very well to start the year and he’s been trying to fight his way back into a rhythm,” Fox said. “He’s found that in practice. Usually if you practice well it carries over into games and tonight you saw that. He was really good, at both ends. It was not just scoring, he was good defensively for us as well.”
Georgia’s bench outscored the Rebels’ bench 36-27.
“We all contributed in our own way and I’m really proud of the boys tonight,” Our bench came out strong and played really good tonight. Juwan found gaps in the defensive zone, they were really congested, so we just tried to move around as much as possible. He found the open shots and played a really good game.”
Breein Tyree led Ole Miss with 17 points, followed by Devontae Shuler with 11.
Georgia returns on action on Saturday when the Bulldogs host Alabama at noon.
NOTES: Four Bulldogs reached double-digits in scoring for the third time this season. … Ogbeide chipped in 14 points for his fourth double-digit scoring output of the season and 13th in career. … Maten’s 15 points moved into the No. 9 spot on Georgia’s all-time scoring list, passing Terry Fair (1,492) and now 25 points away from J.J. Frazier (1,528).
