The Georgia Men’s Basketball team hosted Charleston Southern in a Saturday matchup. The Bulldogs won comfortably, beating the Buccaneers 84-64. The Dawgs’ offense came up big as they shot 53.8 percent from the field, a season high and had 22 assists on the afternoon.
Georgia’s leading scorer for the game was Yante Maten who put down 30 points. He shot 85 percent on the day and made 11-out-of-13 shots, and went 6-10 from the line. This game marked Maten’s second 30-point game of the season. But it wasn’t just the Maten show as the rest of the team contributed a considerable amount. 11 players put at least two points on the board in the matchup. J.J. Frazier had another impressive game scoring 14 points and had five assists.
The Dawgs got off to a fast start in the first half as they went on a 7-0 run. The defense continued to shine throughout the half as they brought down 21 rebounds versus Charleston Southern’s 15. Yante Maten had a great half, shooting 7-for-7 and scoring 19 points. Juwan Parker brought down the most rebounds in the first with six. Eight different players scored in the first half for the Dawgs.
In the second half, the Dawgs came out warm. They let Charleston Southern back into the ball game by playing safe and missing shots. However, that did not last long after a solo dunk from Jordan Harris to switch the momentum back toward Georiga. The Dawgs built on the momentum and energy gained from Harris’ dunk with a few easy shots made by Maten.
“It is always good to win. I thought we were able to play a bunch of guys tonight. A lot of guys needed the experience and Yante (Maten) had a big night. He was bigger than everybody on the court, so he took advantage of his size. But we got him the ball, and we played very unselfishly. It was a pretty complete game for the most part,” said Head Coach Mark Fox.
However, the real momentum changer was the ally-hoop dunk by Yante Maten with the assist from Kenny Paul Geno. After that, it was all Georgia. Particularly on the defensive side of things as the Dawgs out-rebounded the Buccaneer in the second half 20-to-8.
This game was the 500th win at Stegman Coliseum for the Georgia Men’s Basketball program. The Dawgs will be back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 20 as they travel to Atlanta to take on in-state rivals, Georgia Tech. The game will be on ESPNU and will tip-off at 7 p.m. It will mark a 3-game road trip for the men that also includes games against Oakland on Dec. 23rd and Auburn on Dec. 29th. The Dawgs won’t return to Athens till January 4th to host South Carolina.