Dribble Dawgs Blast Buccaneers

BASKETBALL

The Georgia men’s basketball team used a 21-2 first half run to down the East Tennessee State Buccaneers 54-38 Friday night in Athens.

Sophomore Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led Georgia with 13 points and seven rebounds. It’s the fifth time this season he’s led the Dawgs in points, and second time this season that he’s led Georgia on the boards.

“I thought that it was a very hard fought game tonight,” said coach Mark Fox. “We have played five games in 12 days, so we have not had a lot of time to practice recently. We now know all what we have to work on, so we have had to work on these things in our games. “

Georgia went to the locker rooms leading 31-13 after shooting nearly 70 percent in the first half. The Dawgs committed just two turnovers in the first half’s final 11 minutes, while the Georgia defense held ETSU to shooting 17 percent in the first frame.

“We have a young team,” said junior forward Donte’ Williams, who 12 points. “Each game, we see progress. Each game, we get better. And we look to continue that.”

ETSU shrunk the lead to as few as 11 in the first half, but Georgia reeled off eight straight points capped off by a three-pointer by Vincent Williams to put the game away.

Lester Wilson paced ETSU offensively with 12 points and John Walton led the Buccaneers with six rebounds.

For the game, Georgia shot 63 percent from the field, it’s best performance of the season. Georgia dominated the paint, outscoring ETSU in the paint 28-to-12.

Georgia won’t play again for seven days when it travels to Tampa, Florida to take on the South Florida Bulls as part of the SEC/Big East Challenge. The game is televised on ESPNU and is scheduled to tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

Notes…

• With the win, Georgia improves to 2-2 all-time against the Buccaneers
• Georgia didn’t score from the free throw line for the first time since playing Vanderbilt on 1/14/09.
• Tonight (63.2 percent) marked the best shooting performance since 1/15/11 when Georgia shot 63.5 percent from the field
• Georgia ended the first-half on a 21-2 run that lasted over 12 minutes to lead 31-13 at halftime.
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led Georgia with 13 points and seven rebounds. It’s the fifth time this season (19th in career) he’s led the Dawgs in points, and second time this season (6th in career, including ties) that he’s led Georgia on the boards. It’s the second time this season (fifth in career) that he’s led Georgia in both categories in a game.
• Nemanja Djurisic set a career-high with five assists.