Georgia (10-13) suffered a 20-point loss to Ole Miss (16-7) on Saturday in Athens, Ga. This is the Bulldogs fourth straight loss and their ninth SEC loss overall.

Although Georgia started off hot their game was quickly stifled by the Ole Miss defense. The Bulldogs lost the lead eight minutes into the game when the Rebels tied it up 20-20. Rayshaun Hammonds led the Bulldogs in scoring with 10 points for the majority of the game, until Jordan Harris and Tyree Crump also hit ten points late in the second half, but didn’t sink a basket after the 15:27 mark in the first half. Georgia also had a perfect three-point percentage until Harris and Hammonds missed consecutive shots seven minutes in.
 
 

 
 
At his post-game press conference, first season head coach Tom Crean said, “I would chalk it [player frustration] up right there to the lack of mental toughness. We knew that. We know that. We are working on it every day. When you have lost some games, you are either going to move up with it or it is going to come down. We saw that a little bit too much today…. The frustration is really self-inflicted. That is where the lack of mental toughness is because when you are mentally tougher and you are growing your mental toughness you don’t have the self-inflicted wounds as much as we have right now.”

Georgia struggled with turnovers, per usual, committing 16 in the first half and 20 overall. Ole Miss committed half that with 10 overall. The Rebels took advantage of the giveaways scoring a point for every turnover in the first half and three points off of four in the second half.

The teams’ rebound statistics where not largely different, 38 for the Rebels and 32 for the Bulldogs, but Ole Miss made 21 points off of second chance shots while Georgia only made five.

This was also another foul heavy game with both teams going over the limit in the second half. Ole Miss finished with 17 personal fouls and Georgia finished with 20. The Rebels added 15 points to their score due to free throws while Georgia only added 11.

Crean closed with the comment that he is embarrassed about how the team performed in front of the 90 Georgia lettermen that were in attendance. “The worst loss you take is when you have lettermen and former coaches in the stands… I apologize to them.”