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MBB: Georgia vs. Mount St. Mary’s tonight at the Stege

Date: Wednesday, December 20

Time: 7:00 p.m. ET

Venue: Stegeman Coliseum (10,523)

Location: Athens, Ga.

Series History: First meeting

Video: SEC Network+ (Kaleb Frady, play-by-play; Marcus Thornton, color analyst)

Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – SiriusXM 119 or 190 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, color analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)

The Starting Five

• Georgia hosts Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday in the middle outing of a busy pre-holiday stretch. The Bulldogs defeated High Point last Saturday and will entertain North Florida on Friday afternoon. Georgia is looking to extend a five-game winning streak, its longest in Mike White’s two seasons.

• Georgia is 6-0 at Stegeman Coliseum this season, improving to 19-4 in Mike White’s two seasons in Athens. White is a combined 26-5 as a head coach at Stegeman, including a 7-1 mark while at Louisiana Tech and Florida.

• Georgia entered this week ranked No. 10 nationally in FG percentage defense at .375. All 10 of Georgia’s opponents have shot lower than their season average against the Bulldogs.

• Georgia is slated to play 14 of 31 (45.2 percent) of its regular-season games against teams featured in the most recent edition of ESPN.com’s bracketology. Another Bulldog opponent, Oregon, is currently tabbed as the “first team out” of the bracket. 

• Georgia is the nation’s only Power conference team to: 1) open its season with back-to-back games versus Power conference programs (Oregon and Wake Forest); and 2) face four Power conference foes in its first five outings (UO, WFU, Miami and Providence).

The Opening Tip

Georgia continues a busy stretch of three home games in seven days on Wednesday evening when the Bulldogs host Mount St. Mary’s at Stegeman Coliseum. Georgia topped High Point last Saturday and will meet North Florida in a matinee matchup on Friday before enjoying an eight-day break from games around the holiday.

Georgia is 7-3 and in the midst of a five-game winning streak, the Bulldogs’ longest under second-year head coach Mike White. The streak dates back to a Nov. 24 victory over Winthrop and includes successive wins over Florida State, Mercer, Georgia Tech and High Point.

Noah Thomasson is the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, averaging 12.6 ppg. Jabri Abdur-Rahim also is putting up points at a double-digit pace of 12.3 ppg, largely due to connecting on team-best percentages of .426 (20-of-47) from 3-point range and .900 (45-of-50) at the line.  

Scouting The Mountaineers

Mount St. Mary’s arrives in Athens with a 4-6 record. After losing five of their first six games – with OT and double OT setback in that mix – the Mountaineers have bounced back to win three of its last four outings. Mount St. Mary’s is coming off back-to-back road wins at Loyola Maryland and St. Francis (Pa.). MSM’s lone loss in that span was a nine-point decision at Ole Miss.

Dakota Leffew, a native of Jonesboro, Ga., leads the Mountaineers in scoring (17.2 ppg), assists (3.9 apg) and playing time (37.0 mpg). In addition, De’Shayne Montgomery contributes 12.8 ppg coming off the bench.

Series History With Mount St. Mary’s

Wednesday’s game will be the first ever between Georgia and Mount St. Mary’s.

The Bulldogs are 3-2 all-time in outings against teams currently competing with the Mountaineers in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). Georgia is 1-0 versus Manhattan, Marist and Rider and 0-1 against Iona and Niagara.

While Georgia has not faced Mount St. Mary’s, graduate transfer Noah Thomasson did so last season while playing for Niagara. Thomasson was quite successful against the Mountaineers, averaging 21.5 ppg while connecting on 15-of-30 shots from the field (.500), 6-of-14 3-pointers (.429) and 7-of-10 free throws (.700).

Last Time Out

Georgia held one of the nation’s most efficient shooting teams well under its season averages en route to a 66-58 win over High Point last Saturday.

The Panthers entered the contest ranked No. 26 nationally in overall field goal percentage and No. 31 in 3-point percentage, shooting .497 and .387, respectively. The Bulldogs held High Point to .233 overall and .250 from behind the 3-point arc.

Silas Demary Jr. paced Georgia with 12 points, four assists and two steals, while RJ Melendez, Russel Tchewa and Noah Thomasson chipped in 11 points apiece.

“Our half-court defense was terrific against again a top-60, 70 offense, though the numbers fluctuate every day,” head coach Mike White said. “Changing up coverages, I thought, helped a little bit –our ball screen coverages. They do a lot of stuff, too, where they make you communicate. They do a lot of stuff where they get a couple guards running at each other, and there are certain things we try to switch, which we tried not to switch. I thought vocally we were pretty sharp, in the second half, especially.”

Georgia trailed 43-35 with 14:54 remaining before a layup by Tchewa sparked a 12-2 run that put the Bulldogs up 47-45 at the 9:26 mark. Georgia took the lead for good on a pair of free throws from Demary with 8:18 left on the clock.

WBB: Georgia will face Pittsburgh in the Sun Coast Challenge today at noon

Game Information

Georgia (7-3) vs. Pittsburgh (5-5)

Wednesday || Noon ET || Pasco-Hernando State College West Campus || Tampa, Fla.  || BallerTV

TV: BallerTV

Listen: Jeff Dantzler (GeorgiaDogs.com, 960 AM The Ref or 103.7 FM)

Opening Tip

» Georgia will face Pittsburgh in the first of two games at the Sun Coast Challenge in Tampa. Fla. on Wednesday at noon. 

» The Lady Bulldogs play Ball State on Thursday at noon. Both games will played on the campus of Pasco-Hernando State College West Campus. 

» Pittsburgh is coming off a 94-82 win over Lehigh on Dec. 10. The Panthers will face Ball State on Tuesday before meeting the Lady Bulldogs. 

» This is the second all-time meeting between Georgia and Pittsburgh. The two teams last met in the 1981 National Women’s Invitational Tournament in Amarillo, Texas. The Lady Bulldogs defeated the Panthers 100-69 en route to winning the NWIT.

» Georgia’s bench is averaging 28.2 points per game, good for second in the SEC. 

» The Lady Bulldogs rank fifth in the SEC in rebounds per game at 43.7 per contest. 

» Fifth-year forward Javyn Nicholson has scored in double figures in every game this season and averages nearly a double-double of 15.4 points and nine rebounds per game. 

» Georgia is in its second season under the leadership of Coach ABE. ABE’s successful first year included a NCAA tournament appearance, 22 wins, and a fifth-place finish in the final SEC standings. 

» The Lady Bulldogs were the only SEC squad to not have a single player enter the transfer portal this past offseason. 

»  Coach ABE’s teams have won 20 or more games in 11-straight seasons, while her 12 NCAA tournament appearances rank third among active SEC coaches, only behind Kim Mulkey (LSU) and Dawn Staley (South Carolina). 

» Georgia is in search of its 37th NCAA tournament appearance this season. The Lady Bulldogs’ 36 trips are tied for the second most among all programs. 

» Georgia is one of three programs nationwide, joining Wisconsin Green Bay and Tennessee, to never have a losing record in a season. 

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