Thursday, February 3, 2022

Lady Dawgs Defeat Vandy

UGA Sports Communications

A dominant second half performance at home saw the No. 14-ranked Lady Dawgs top the Vanderbilt Commodores Thursday night at Stegeman Coliseum, 71-56.

Jenna Staiti led all scorers tonight with 16 while Javyn Nicholson notched her season high in rebounds with nine. With the win, Georgia improves to 17-4 overall and 6-3 in the SEC. Vanderbilt falls to 12-11, 3-6.

“Vanderbilt is a good team that is getting better every time they play,” shared coach Joni Taylor. “We knew it was going to be tough tonight. We prepared for it to be tough, and we knew it was going to be a grind it out game where hopefully we could create separation in the third and fourth quarter – and that’s what we did.”

The Lady Dawgs responded to an early Commodore lead as Sarah Ashlee Barker laid in for two. Mikayla Coombs connected with Staiti to give the graduate center her first of six points in the quarter. Georgia trailed 16-13 at the end of the first.

Morrison tied the ball game for the Lady Dawgs with a three-point jumper to open second quarter scoring. Midway through the second, Malury Bates finished a bucket to give Georgia their first lead of the game. Bates contributed two blocks on the following possessions to help preserve the Georgia lead. The Lady Dawgs led 26-23 at halftime.

After Morrison knocked down a pair of free throws to open the third quarter, Staiti kept pace adding two more to her tally with a jumper. Javyn Nicholson showed her strength late on with a tough lay-up to take a foul. The Lady Dawgs jumped out to a 47-41 lead going into the fourth.

A 10-0 run during the fourth quarter secured the win for the Georgia along with Nicholson’s six points in the final quarter.

Next up, the Lady Dawgs host SEC rival Florida at 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 6th at Stegeman Coliseum. Coverage will be on SEC Network.

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