The University of Georgia Men’s Basketball team was defeated by East Tennessee State University 86-84 in a heartbreaker on Wednesday night in Stegman Coliseum.
Monday’s game was a career night for Noah Baumann, who finished with 25 points and 7 rebounds while playing 33 minutes to lead the Dawgs in each of those three categories. Baumann converted on 8 of his 10 3-Point attempts, coming up only one make shy of tying the school record for 3-Pointers made in a single game. The Buccaneers were led offensively by David Sloan and Jordan King, who notched 24 and 22 points, respectively.
Georgia came out a bit sluggish to begin the game while David Sloan, conversely, started red-hot in scoring 9 quick points in the game’s first three and a half minutes to give ETSU an early 12-4 advantage with 16:32 on the clock. An ensuing 6-0 UGA scoring run with buckets from Braelen Bridges and Tyron McMillan and free throws from Christian Wright would make it a one possession game before a pair of 3-Pointers from King would bump the Buccaneer lead back to 8 at a score of 18-10 with 12:43 remaining in the half. The Bulldogs would then score 7 unanswered points, capped by the first of Baumann’s eight long range bombs, over just 37 seconds to bring the game back within 1 point. After the two squads traded short scoring spurts over the next 4 minutes, back-to-back threes from Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Noah Baumann gave Georgia its first lead since a 3-2 score as the Dawgs led 30-29 with 6:27 to play in the half. Georgia lived by the 3-Point line during the last 7 minutes of the first half as their only scoring came by way of 5 made triples. A 10-3 Buccaneer scoring run with buckets from Kung, Ty Brewer, and Mohab Yasser over the last 2:50 of the half would give ETSU a 48-39 halftime advantage.
5 quick ETSU points from David Sloan to start the second half gave the Bucs their largest lead of the night of 14 points at a score of 53-39. Christian Wright stopped the bleeding with a 3-Pointer which would ignite a 17-5 UGA scoring run as the Dawgs fought to reduce the ETSU advantage to just 2 points at a score of 58-56 with 14:31 left in the game. After scoring just 4 points in the first half, Kario Oquendo was noticeably more aggressive in early in the second half and had three strong drives to the basket resulting in 6 easy points during the run. After the ETSU lead had increased back to 6 points, 10 unanswered UGA points, the largest scoring run of the night for either team, would put the Dawgs up by 4 at a score of 71-67 with 7:40 remaining in the contest. The last 5 points of the run were scored by Aaron Cook as he began to take the game over offensively. With an and-1 layup in transition, variety of pull up jumpers, and deep 3-Pointer, Cook would score 14 of his 17 points over a four-minute stretch to give Georgia its largest lead of the game at a score of 82-74 with 4:00 left to play. It was at this point that ETSU elevated its defensive intensity to hold Georgia scoreless over the next 3:25 and tie the game at 82. A strong finish through contact from Baumann would put the Bulldogs back up by 2 with 35 seconds left before a deep, fading 3-Pointer from Sloan gave the Buccaneers a 1-point advantage with only 8 seconds on the clock. The Dawgs were able to get a great last-second look for Baumann on a corner 3-Point attempt with one second left, but a narrow miss spoiled his fabulous shooting night and secured the 86-84 victory for ETSU.
Wednesday night marked a season-high in both 3-Point attempts (34) and makes (14) for Georgia as both teams let it fly from deep all game long.
The loss on Wednesday brings Georgia to 5-7 on the season as the team prepares for their final non-conference game of the season against Gardner-Webb on Wednesday, December 29.