The Lady Bulldogs fell short of the Crimson Tide Sunday at home. Georgia was within two points of Alabama with 45 seconds left, but Alabama went on to defeat the Bulldogs 58-53.
Georgia came out with momentum in the beginning of the first quarter. The Bulldogs were up by six points within the first four minutes of the game, but they lost this lead quickly and went into the half behind Alabama by nine points. Besides the burst of energy late in the fourth, Georgia was playing catch-up to Alabama and at times lagged by 10 or more points.
Taja Cole did not compete in this game due to breaking a team rule, so sophomore Gabby Connally stepped up as guard.
Even though Connally’s shooting performance struggled, Georgia as a team only had a 29% shooting percentage, she totaled a career-high five steals and five assists.
Both the ladies and head coach Joni Taylor do not believe that Cole’s absence on the court Sunday had any real impact on the team’s dynamic on the court.
It comes down to Georgia taking better care of the ball on offense.
“It is kind of the same stuff from every game … There were times we didn’t execute the offense, and there were also times we got the shots we wanted and they didn’t fall. We have to continue to get in the gym, continue to shoot so that our shots will fall when we get in the game,” Connally said.
At one point in the game the Bulldogs had three turnovers in a row. Que Morrison said the key to fixing this is slowing everyone down to prevent back-to-back turnovers.
The other key is for players not to get frustrated when they aren’t performing on the offensive end of the ball.
“We can’t let [our struggles on the offensive end] affect us because that will affect our next shot and the next play, and we don’t want it to affect us on the defensive end,” Connally said. “We just need to put four quarters together to finish out a basketball game.”
Georgia, (12-8, 3-4 SEC) will take on Arkansas (16-5, 5-2 SEC) Thursday on the road at 8 p.m.