Lady Dawgs Defeat Rebels

BASKETBALL

Jasmine James scored a game-high 19 points to lead No. 24 Georgia (19-6, 9-3 SEC) to a 61-56 victory over Ole Miss (10-14, 3-9 SEC) at Tad Smith Coliseum on Sunday.

"We played very gritty," Andy Landers said. "It's always tough on the road."

James scored 13 second-half points in front a vocal group of about 40 family and friends from her hometown of Memphis, including a large number of former teammates at Bartlett High School. She also collected a season-high seven rebounds.

Jasmine Hassell added 17 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Dawgs, and Porsha Phillips chipped in 11 points and nine boards.

Georgia led by eight points as late as 2:15 left in the game, but the win wasn't secured until Tamika Willis hit two free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining.

After trailing by 10 late in the first half, the Lady Dawgs rallied to trim the margin to six at the half and scored the first four points following intermission to pull within a bucket.

Ole Miss responded with seven straight to build the advantage back to nine at 38-29 with 17:41 left.

Georgia rallied again to tie the score at 38-38 just 2:23 later and grabbed a 43-42 lead on a James steal and lay-up at the 9:57 mark.

"I was pleased with the way we started the second half, but son of a gun, they snatched the lead right back," Landers said. "We did a nice job to make another run to get back to even. After we went by, we pretty much handled our business well to a great extent from that point on."

The Lady Dawgs gradually pushed that margin to 57-49 with 3:23 remaining and then missed two chances to extend it even further by failing to convert a lay-up and committing a turnover on a breakaway.

"We missed two wide-open layups that I think changed the way the last few minutes were played," Landers said. "We could've gone up 12."

Georgia also missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final minute and shot just 11-of-23 from the line for the game.

"We were snake bit at the line," Landers said. "It's tough in a close game when you don't knock them down but we were able to pull it out."

Georgia led early 15-12 after back-to-back threes from James and Anne Marie Armstrong, but Maggie McFerrin knotted the score on a three with 7:47 left in the half that ignited a 15-2 Ole Miss run over the next 4:07.

The Lady Dawgs didn't lead for a span of 16:41 until James' lay-up, but Georgia never trailed the rest of the day.

Georgia will now return to Athens to host No.15 Kentucky on Thursday at 7 p.m. The first 300 UGA students admitted to the game will receive free pizza, a "Beat Kentucky" t-shirt and could win a series of prizes included a flip cam.

Reserved seat tickets for the Lady Dawg games are $5 for adults and $3 for children. Those are available at the Butts-Mehre ticket office from 8:30-4:30 Monday-Friday and via the internet at www.georgiadogs.com. In addition, tickets will go on sale at the Stegeman Coliseum box office (on the side of arena closest to Sanford Drive) beginning 90 minutes before tip-off.