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BSB: Dawgs Win Two in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, N.C. –  The eighth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs improved to 3-0 after posting pair of wins, beating Quinnipiac 7-4 and then UNC Wilmington 7-3 here Saturday in front of a crowd of 2,432 at Brooks Field.

Fast Facts In Game One

• Five Bulldogs combined on a five-hitter to beat Quinnipiac in game one Saturday that was moved up to 10 a.m. due to possible inclement weather. Junior right-hander Davis Chastain notched the win in relief while junior right-hander DJ Radtke picked up a save.

• Graduate centerfielder Nolan McCarthy smacked an RBI-triple in the sixth to tie the contest and then first baseman Ryland Zaborowski provided the go-ahead RBI-single in the seventh. The Bobcats would make it 4-all in their half of the seventh before the Bulldogs responded with a three-run outburst in the eighth.

• In the eighth, senior Robbie Burnett (2-2, RBI) made it 5-4 with a two-out, RBI-single and senior Slate Alford (1-3, 3 RBI) followed with a two-run single to increase the lead.

Fast Facts In Game Two

• Junior left-hander Alton Davis struck out a career-high seven over 3.2 innings in relief of graduate Brian Zeldin for his first win as a Bulldog.

• Junior right-hander Brian Curley tossed two scoreless innings with three strikeouts to end the contest. He touched 100 miles per hour in a strikeout of Bromley Thornton.

• Senior Henry Hunter notched a team-high three RBI on two hits, all with two outs, while graduate Nolan McCarthy (3-for-4), sophomore Tre Phelps (2-for-6) and Kolby Branch (2-for-4) keyed an 11-hit attack.

• Senior Robbie Burnett reached base in his first 10 plate appearances on the season before grounding out in his second at bat.

Key Quotes

Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson

On the playing conditions today and the pitching staff

“The wind was blowing in today, and in this ballpark, that makes it tough to get one out here for any team. All the teams were hitting some balls hard all day. We could’ve had six or eight home runs, and we didn’t have one. We had to score runs some other ways that you don’t normally see from us. I tip my hat to what our pitching staff did today. We used a lot of guys, and the way the last two guys performed, Alton Davis and Brian Curley, that was a lot of fun.”

Alton Davis II, LHP

“My adrenaline was pumping. My pitch count was good, and I came out to throw strikes. I’m blessed that Wes (Johnson) gave me the opportunity to show my talent, come out here with this team behind me and put the trust in me to pitch.”

Up Next

Georgia (3-0) will play host UNC Wilmington Sunday at 3 p.m.

MBB: Georgia Falls To Missouri 87-74

The Georgia Bulldogs (16-10, 4-9 SEC) fell to the No. 21 Missouri Tigers (19-6, 8-4 SEC), 87-74, on Saturday evening at Stegeman Coliseum. Three scorers reached double figures headlined by freshman forward Asa Newell’s 23 point-10 rebound double-double.

Fast Facts

• After Newell’s 23 point-performance, sophomore guards Silas Demary Jr. and Blue Cain followed up with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

• Newell posted his sixth double-double of the season and his third with 20+ points.

• RJ Godfrey matched his season high three blocks, doing so in back-to-back games after setting his season mark in his previous outing against Texas A&M.

• Newell tallied three blocks against the Tigers, marking his fifth game with three or more blocks this season.

• Demary Jr. knocked down three 3-pointers on the evening, marking back-to-back games with three or more triples and his fourth of the season. 

Postgame Presser

Key Quotes

Georgia Head Coach Mike White

On Dakota Leffew…

“I don’t know where his pain tolerance is, you know how much he’s hurt. I don’t know. He hasn’t practiced much, but there’s so many other ways you can affect the game. We’ve got to rebound. And it was actually one of our better offensive SEC games. You get a few stops that 74 might be 85, just couldn’t collect stops. Our guards did a poor job overall helping our bigs rebound the basketball. They had 3-point shooters literally get their own rebound. You don’t see that much, so just not a great effort there. That said again, the positives are that we needed some better things offensively. 15-9, if I’m not mistaken, 15-to-9 shot 50 percent against a really good defense. Only got 10 offensive rebounds, but again, shot a good percentage. But 18, three assists, turnovers. For those guys, that’s what they do. They’re fantastic with that statistic. Their 17 offensive rebounds were probably the biggest stat of the game.”

On second half defense…

“I don’t think it was our best effort game, but I wouldn’t question their efforts right until I watch the film, and there might be a possession or two. These are 40-minute games, they are long games. We’ve kind of morphed into playing a few guys heavier minutes than we were a month ago. Out of necessity, really trying to play game. And Silas [Demary Jr.] left a lot of effort out there on the floor. RJ Godfrey did as well. I thought Blue [Cain] played really hard. I mean Asa Newell, we’re down double figures late, and he’s playing like it’s the Super Bowl. That’s who he is. We need more consistent effort like that from some of our some of our older guys. He’s a true freshman and he showed a lot of character today, as he always does.”

On what the staff can do to help with second half performances…

“I wonder about it a lot. Consistently, every day, talk about every day, try a few different things, and we’ll try something else. Have a long conversation tomorrow. We’ll talk about it Monday. At halftime, we tried watching positive, we tried watching negative. We tried not watching. We tried just talking. We tried not talking. We tried giving our guys a lot of time just on their own. We tried giving them no time on their own. We met in the middle; this is a mystery. I haven’t coached a team that struggled this much early second half. I can’t put my finger on it. I’m going to get more feedback from our guys. That’ll be the next trial and error process. Our young guys in the locker room, we want them to talk about it, but at halftime, trust me, we aren’t celebrating winning at half. We go in here and watch defensively the mistakes that we made. And the message is clear, we’ve got to get better in the second half defensively to be a good SEC team, and early second half, and we weren’t very good defensively.”

On the impact of the conference schedule…

“I think the grind has an impact on everybody. Everybody at this level. We’ve also had two or three that could have gone the other way with just one thing going differently. We wouldn’t be talking about the grind; we would be talking about how good of a position we are in. This one was big, and our guys knew it was big.”

On the team’s transition defense…

“With this match up, that was our defensive key for this game. Trying to make these guys who are elite in transition and in space and turn people over. So, they’re in space a lot, and they’ve got guys that can shoot and guys who can drive it.”

On controlling the team’s frustration going into the next game…

“I wish we would have played more frustrated. Really the entire second half defensively. So, if a tough week of practice can get some more out of some guys in terms of their intensity and mental and physical toughness, and our ability to fight through fatigue and get stops and get rebounds, if you’re frustrated that’s fine. As long as you continue to be a good teammate, be connected with teammates, continue to do what we’re asking to do, but we’ve got to play more frustrated.”

Up Next

The Bulldogs will travel and face No. 1 Auburn on Saturday, Feb. 22 with tipoff set at 4 p.m. ET at Neville Arena. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

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