Dawgs Accept Bid To Outback Bowl

FOOTBALL

The 18th ranked Dawgs (10-3) were extended, and accepted, an invitation to the Outback Bowl Sunday to face 12th ranked Michigan State (10-3) in Tampa, Monday, January 2nd.

Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally by ABC TV.

Both teams are coming off conference championship game appearances. The Dawgs are 3-0 in previous trips to the Outback Bowl. The ‘Dawgs defeated Wisconsin, 33-6, in the 1998 game; defeated Purdue, 28-25, in overtime in the 2000 game; and won the 2005 game with Wisconsin, 24-21.

Georgia lost to Boston College, 27-24, in the 1986 Hall of Fame Bowl which was also held in Tampa.

This will mark the third all time meeting with Michigan State. The ‘Dawgs defeated the Spartans in the 1989 Gator Bowl, 34-27, in Vince Dooley’s last game as head coach at Georgia. The Dawgs and Michigan State also faced each other in the 2009 Capital One Bowl, a 24-12 Georgia win.

“We are delighted with the selection of our team to represent the Southeastern Conference in the Outback Bowl,” said UGA Director of Athletics Greg McGarity. “It’s a great destination for our student athletes and our fans --- warm weather, wonderful attractions, a first class stadium, and we look forward to competing against a great Michigan State team. Our fans have been a big part of our success this season and I’m confident they will support the team with their attendance in this bowl game.”

“I’m really excited for our team and especially our seniors with the opportunity to play in the Outback Bowl which is one of the premier January bowl games,” said coach Mark Richt. “We were fortunate to play in this game back in 2005 and had a terrific experience. This will be the first time the members of our team have the opportunity to play in Tampa and playing a top quality opponent like Michigan State will be a challenge we’ll look forward to.”

This will be Georgia’s 47th bowl game―sixth most of any team in the country. The Dawgs’ all-time bowl record is 26-17-3.

Lady Dawgs Swat Jackets

BASKETBALL

Jasmine Hassell scored a career-high 24 points and recorded six rebounds and one assist to lead the No. 15 Georgia Lady Dawgs (7-1) to a 75-68 victory against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (5-3) Sunday afternoon.

“Jasmine was terrific tonight," said coach Andy Landers. "She played well on the defensive end of the court and shot about as well as anyone could shoot. She went out there and went after rebounds that she hasn’t gone after before. She’s really becoming a better rebounder.”

Hassell connected on 9-of-10 shots from the floor and 6-of-7 attempts at the line en route to her career outing.

The Yellow Jackets saw double-digit scoring efforts from three players and out-rebounded the Georgia 47-42, but it was not enough to overcome the solid effort shown by the Lady Dawgs as a whole.

“I was impressed by the way we played tonight," continued Landers. "We forced some turnovers to end the first half and then again to start the second half. Georgia Tech is a team that likes to force turnovers and really needs to get to the free throw line a lot to win games. Tonight, we didn’t allow either of those things to happen. We did get beat on the boards tonight, but when we are forcing turnovers and hitting free throws, you have a Georgia team that is put in the position to win.”

Meredith Mitchell led the Lady Dawgs on the boards with seven rebounds. She also contributed 10 points, three assists and one block. Jasmine James notched 12 points, five rebounds and five steals.

Georgia started the game quickly when James hit a jumper four seconds in to spark an 8-4 run that lasted 3:08 minutes. Georgia Tech then came back with a 7-2 run that gave them their first lead of the game, 11-10. Throughout the entire half, neither team led by more than six.

With 46 seconds left in the first period, James hit a layup to knot the score at 33-33. For the first time this season, the Lady Dawgs entered the locker room tied at halftime.

Georgia shot 41.7 percent from the floor in the first half. Interestingly, neither team connected from behind the three point line until late in the second half.

At halftime, Landers told the Lady Dawgs, "Every shot, every move and every rebound has to be with a purpose. Go out there and make sure they do."

The Lady Dawgs shot 64.3 percent from the free throw line for the night, including six in their 8-2 run to start the second half. Once the they took the lead with 17:43 left in the game, they never relinquished it.

With 6:47 on the clock, Khaalidah Miller stepped up and made the first three-pointer of the game.

“It was a learning experience for Khaalidah tonight," said Landers. "She usually has her pick of shots, but she wasn’t getting many looks today. I told her at the start of the second half to wait and be patient because your shot is coming. When she hit the three late in the second half, I knew before she even looked at the basket that it was her shot.”

With 4:08 left in the game, Hassell fouled Chelsea Regins on a made layup. Regins was then called on a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct. Regins hit the extra free throw, while Anne Marie Armstrong connected on two free throws to keep Georgia up by 10, 65-56.

With 2:28 left in the game, Georgia Tech attempted a comeback, with an 8-0 run, but were thwarted when Mitchell and Hassell connected on free throws to keep Georgia up 74-68.

With 2.6 seconds left on the clock, Regins fouled out and sent Mitchell to the line. She hit her first free throw, but missed the second, to put the Dawgs up for one last time, 75-68.

The Lady Dawgs will travel to Macon, on Tuesday to take on the Mercer Bears at 7:00 p.m. Mercer is coached by former Lady Dawg Susie Gardner, who helped lead UGA to the 1983, 1984 and 1986 SEC Championships, the 1983 Final Four and a 1985 NCAA runner-up finish.

Post-Game Notes

• Georgia improved to 30-4 all-time against Georgia Tech, including a 14-0 record in Athens.
• Georgia won after being tied at the half for the first time this season. A year ago, the Lady Dawgs lost both games when they were tied at halftime...at Florida and at Southern Cal.
• Jasmine Hassell scored a career-high 24 points, topping her previous best of 22 against both Denver on Nov. 26, 2010 and Ole Miss on Jan. 24, 2010.
• Jasmine Hassell’s 24 points represented the most by a Lady Dawg in a single game this season. Anne Marie Armstrong’s 22 points versus TCU in the season opener was the previous high.
• Jasmine Hassell notched her first 20-point game of the season and third of her career.
• Tamika Willis scored a season-high nine points, all in the first half. Her previous best was seven points against College of Charleston.
• Georgia took (four) and made (one) season lows for three-point attempts.
• Georgia took (28) and made (18) season highs for free throw attempts.

Lady Bulldogs In Double Digits

• Jasmine Hassell scored 24 points, her fifth double-digit outing of the season and 25th of her career.
• Jasmine James scored 12 points, her sixth double-digit outing of the season and 45th of her career.
• Meredith Mitchell scored 10 points, her second double-digit outing of the season and 28th of her career.

Dribble Dawgs Beaten By Bearcats

BASKETBALL

The Georgia men’s basketball team took a nine-point lead into halftime before scoring a season-low 21 points in the second half in falling 57-51 to Cincinnati Friday night in Stegeman Coliseum as part of the Big East/SEC Challenge.

The Dawgs (4-4) led the Bearcats 30-21 at the intermission, with that 21-point UC output tied for a season-low by a Georgia opponent in a first half this season. But Georgia’s offensive struggles in the second half – shooting just 6-of-21 from the floor after the break – allowed Cincinnati to mount the comeback.

Freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led Georgia with 16 points as the freshman has now scored in double figures in each game of his short college career. He was followed by Gerald Robinson’s 12 points. For Cincinnati, Sean Kilpatrick (22) and Dion Dixon (19) combined to lead the comeback charge for the visitors, with the pair hitting a combined eight three-pointers on the night including six in the second half.

“That was a really hard-fought, physical basketball game,” said coach Mark Fox. “Cincinnati is a really good, strong team and they fought really hard and wore us down in the second half. We competed hard but we just couldn’t make enough plays to win the game.”

“They’re an older, stronger, and more mature team than we are and you really have to give their defense a lot of credit,” Fox said. “They were very strong in the second half and they kept up their intensity.”

Georgia went down 9-3 early before erupting for an 11-0 run to pull in front by five, 14-9, with 9:03 left in the first half. Cincinnati failed to score for over nine minutes, finally snapping that drought with a three from Kilpatrick with 6:44 remaining.

A free throw by Nemanja Djurisic with 2:26 to go in the period gave Georgia its first double-digit lead of the night at 10, 27-17, and the Dawgs went up by their largest margin of 11 at 30-19 with 39 seconds left. Kilpatrick closed the half with a jumper to make the Georgia lead nine, 30-21, at intermission.

With Georgia again up 11 with 17:59 to go in the contest, Cincinnati rattled off a 17-4 run to regain the lead by two, 40-38, with 10:09 to play. Dixon’s sharp shooting from long range gave the Bearcats a six-point lead, 49-43, with 4:49 left and Kilpatrick added a three of his own down the stretch to seal it.

Cincinnati outscored the Dawgs by 15 after halftime in earning the 57-51 road win, moving to 5-2 on the year.

Georgia shot 17-for-47 on the night for a 36-percent clip, and was just 3-14 from three-point range. Caldwell-Pope padded his line with seven rebounds and four steals, while Marcus Thornton led UGA on the glass with eight rebounds.

Tonight marked the first meeting between these programs in their histories, as the Bulldogs are now 10-15 against members of the Big East. Georgia had been on the road for its previous four games and had not played in Stegeman Coliseum since Nov. 16 before tonight.

Georgia is back in action next Wed., Dec. 7 when it hosts in-state rival Georgia Tech for a 7 p.m. tip on Fox Sports Net.

SEC Championship Recap

FOOTBALL

With tonight’s loss to #1 LSU, Georgia (10-3) fell to 2-2 in SEC Championship games and saw its 10-game winning streak end. In school history, the Dawgs are 1-4 when facing the top-ranked team. LSU leads the all-time series 16-12-1 including 2-1 in SEC Championship contests.

The Dawg defense held LSU scoreless in the first quarter and without a first down. LSU’s seven points in the first half came on a punt return. Georgia has now outscored its opponents 105-27 in the opening period this season. In fact, Georgia has outscored its SEC opponents 63-20 in the first quarter in 2011. The last time Georgia held an opponent to just seven points in a half was versus #24 Auburn.

The Dawgs held LSU to 11 total yards in the first two quarters. In the first half, the Tigers went 0-for-7 in third down conversions. LSU had never trailed at halftime this season and was only tied at the half with #2 Alabama 3-3. LSU’s only touchdown of the first half came on a 62-yard punt return by Tyrann Mathieu. This was the second punt return for a TD by a Georgia opponent this year (Ole Miss, 81 yards).

Of LSU’s six scoring drives, only two on offense covered more than 26 yards, both in the second half (a 70-yard, 10-play drive in the third quarter; a 4-play, 93-yard drive in 1:51). LSU scored one TD on special teams and one on defense and a total of 21 points came off turnovers. LSU finished with 237 yards of total offense on 48 plays while the Dawgs ran 85 plays for 296 yards.

Redshirt sophomore QB Aaron Murray (16-of-40 for 163 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs) connected with senior TE Aron White for a 12-yard TD at the 0:42 mark in the first quarter to put Georgia up 10-0. This improved Murray’s school record mark to 33 touchdown passes in a season while White hauled in his fourth of the year. Freshman Malcolm Mitchell and junior Orson Charles led the way with 4 catches apiece. Freshman TB Ken Malcome had his first career reception (17 yards). Sophomore QB Hutson Mason finished the game, going 4-for-11, 55 yards. Malcome finished as the leading Dawg rusher with 37 yards on five carries.

Senior PK Blair Walsh booted a 40-yard field goal at the 11:45 mark in the opening period to give the Dawgs a 3-0 edge. Walsh set an NCAA record with the connection giving him 44 games in his career with at least one field goal. Former Dawg Billy Bennett held the record with 43. Walsh is now 19-for-31 this season. Currently, he has 404 career points, second in SEC history to Bennett’s record 409. Walsh’s field goal was set up by Murray connected with Tavarres King for a 44-yard reception to the LSU 21-yard line.

The Dawgs had their first successful onside kick since 2008 after the opening score. With Walsh also on the field, senior PK Brandon Bogotay popped the kickoff in air and sophomore ILB Alec Ogletree soared above the crowd to recover the kick. The Dawgs then missed a 45-yard field goal to end their possession. This marked the first time Georgia has recovered an onside kick since Jamie Lindley kicked off and CJ Byrd recovered the ball versus #8 Alabama in 2008.

Murray fumbled on the Georgia 26-yard line early in the third quarter. LSU then scored a touchdown to make it 14-10. Midway through the third quarter, Murray threw an interception in LSU territory. The Tigers then drove down and scored a touchdown to make it 28-10 and added a pick six late in the fourth quarter. Opponents have scored 63 points off 22 Bulldog miscues. LSU came in leading the nation at +19 in turnovers; Georgia was +10.

Sophomore Alec Olgetree had six tackles, including a sack, while OLB Cornelius Washington recorded three tackles, also including a sack.

Sophomore DE Garrison Smith got his first start in place of injured senior DeAngelo Tyson.

Injury Report: Junior ILB Mike Gilliard left the game in the second quarter with a right ankle injury and did not return. Junior TB Carlton Thomas injured his left knee in the third quarter and did not return.

Georgia’s captains on Saturday were TE Orson Charles, LT Cordy Glenn, CB/KOR Brandon Boykin and OLB Jarvis Jones.

Up next, the Dawgs will learn their bowl destination on Sunday.

Dawgs Lead Good Works Team

FOOTBALL

The University of Georgia leads the nation in football players named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, and on Thursday a number of those honorees gathered to further their efforts within the community.

Six former Dawg stars joined representatives from the Southeastern Conference and Allstate Insurance to lend their hands to charity as part of the third annual Allstate SEC Good Works Day in Atlanta. Planned in conjunction with Hands on Atlanta, the community service initiative benefitted CHRIS Kids, a local organization that provides safe and stable living environments and offers mental health services for children and
families.

A pair of former All-American offensive linemen, brothers Matt and Jon Stinchcomb, teamed with former Dawg quarterbacks David Greene and D.J. Shockley, defensive lineman Quentin Moses, defensive back Kelin Johnson, and several volunteers from the SEC and Allstate, to wrap holiday gifts, prepare lunches, paint murals and landscape the grounds at the CHRIS Kids facility on Fayetteville Road. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive was also on hand at the event.

The Georgia football alumni share a unique bond in that all six players were selected to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team during their college careers for their commitment to service and volunteerism. Since the national award began in 1992, no school or conference has had more student athletes named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team than Georgia and the SEC.

Earlier this fall, current Georgia tight end Aron White became the 13th Dawg to receive the prestigious honor. Allstate also partnered with the SEC and former Georgia players for Good Works Day events in Atlanta leading up to the SEC Football Championship games in 2009 and 2010.