The University of Georgia Men’s Basketball team defeated the Miami (OH) RedHawks 77-70 on Monday night in Stegeman Coliseum to secure their second home victory in as many games.
Bradley transfer Terry Roberts led the Dawgs in scoring for the second consecutive game, dropping 22 points while notching a team-high 3 assists. True freshman KyeRon Lindsay impressed in his first career double-double performance with 14 points on 6-8 shooting and 10 rebounds.
For the RedHawks, it was the Mekhi Lairy show all night long. The 5’8” super-senior exploded for 34 points while shooting 10-18 from the field and a perfect 10-10 from the charity stripe.
The Dawgs started hot in front of their home crowd once again, jumping out to a quick 10-0 lead to force a frustrated Travis Steele to call timeout after less than 3 minutes of action. Ball movement was a major factor attributable to Georgia’s early success on offense as the Bulldogs assisted on 7 of their first 8 made field goals, marking what hoped to be a dramatic improvement upon their season average of 11.5 assists per game. The team also took much better care of the basketball in the first half than they had in previous outings, recording only 6 turnovers and allowing only 5 resultant RedHawk points. Coming into the matchup shooting below 30% from 3-Point range as a team, the Dawgs shot with palpable confidence in the first period on their way to hitting 6 of their 13 long-range tries at a 46% clip. After leading by as many as 17 points following a 3-Pointer from Kario Oquendo with 6:55 remaining, the Dawgs took a 10-point lead to the locker room at half time with a score of 38-28.
Oquendo led all Bulldog scorers with 9 first-half points, but saw only 5:35 of playing time in the second half for undisclosed reasons. The star guard did not appear to leave the contest with an injury, and was perhaps sidelined after two early second-half turnovers and subsequent conversation with Coach Mike White. White failed to mention Oquendo in his opening statement during a post-game press conference and was not asked about the rationale behind his decision to leave the Pre-Season Second Team All-SEC nominee on the bench by reporters.
The second half was a much closer battle than Georgia fans presumably would have liked, as Miami fought back early in the period to give the Dawgs a scare. The Bulldogs were able to expand their lead to 15 in a little over 2 minutes with 2 tough finishes inside from Roberts, but the RedHawks stopped the bleeding with looks inside to their powerful big man Anderson Mirambeaux. Still down by 10 points, Miami sparked an 8-0 run, highlighted by 3-Pointers from Lairy and Billy Smith, over 59 seconds to cut the Georgia lead to just 2 points with 11:58 to play. The Dawgs turned the ball over 4 times while failing to attempt a shot during the run. Georgia got to the free throw line to halt the run before Roberts poured in 7 points over a 1:48 stretch to push his squad’s lead back to double digits at a score of 63-53 with 7:22 on the clock. Refusing to quit, Miami surged back yet again while Lairy contributed 12 of his team’s 17 points to eventually make it a one-possession game with 26 seconds left. The Bulldogs took care of business in crunch time, however, converting on 4 of 6 free-throws and preventing Lairy from taking another shot to hold on for the win.
The main storyline in the second half for Georgia was the outstanding play of KyeRon Lindsay, who kept Georgia alive almost singlehandedly with his dominance on the offensive glass. The freshman snagged 6 of his 7 offensive rebounds in the second half and bailed the Dawgs out repeatedly with strong second-chance finishes. Thanks in large part to Lindsay’s individual performance, the team recorded a season-high 18 offensive rebounds on Monday, a +10 margin over Miami in that category. Although the second half brought Georgia right back to its season averages in assists and 3-Point percentage (11 and 30.4%, respectively), their tenacity on the boards helped them survive in what was their worst shooting performance of the season (39.7%).
Encouragingly, the Dawgs found a way to win on their home floor in spite of the poor shooting night and without a significant contribution from their best player. New additions to the roster stepped up in a big way as the team continues to find its identity in the early part of the young season.
The win on Monday brings the Bulldogs to a 2-1 record as the team prepares to host Bucknell at 7:00 PM on Friday, November 18th in Stegeman Coliseum.