The UGA Men’s Basketball team took care of business on Tuesday night in Stegman Coliseum, recording a decisive 69-58 victory over Jacksonville University.
Starting center Braelen Bridges led the Dawgs offensively, scoring 14 points on an efficient 4-4 shooting performance. The big man also knocked down 6 of his 8 free-throw attempts. Jacksonville’s Mike Marsh posted a double-double, putting up 15 points while snagging 10 rebounds to lead all players in each category.
In the first half, Georgia did an exceptional job taking care of the basketball, recording just 3 turnovers and allowing 0 steals to a Jacksonville team averaging 10.2 steals per game entering the contest. Following a 3-Pointer from George Pridgett, the Dolphins jumped out to an early 7-4 lead with 15:41 remaining in the first half, and the team would maintain this advantage for over 7 minutes of action. It was the Jaylin Ingram show in the first half for Georgia, as the forward scored the first 8 Bulldog points and 10 of the team’s first 16 with a fast-break layup that tied the game at 16 with 8:24 to play in the half. The Ingram bucket sparked the largest scoring run of the night for the Dawgs, who held a 20-16 lead after a pair of free-throws from Jabri Abdur-Rahim and a layup from Christian Wright. After trading baskets for the next 2:46, 3-Pointers from Noah Baumann and Aaron Cook over the last three and a half minutes of play would help give the Bulldogs an 8-point halftime advantage at a score of 32-24.
Unfortunately for the Dawgs, the main storyline of the second half was a non-contact injury to starting forward Jaylin Ingram who had to be assisted off the floor with 14:21 on the clock and would not return for the remainder of the game. During the post-game press conference, teammate Jaxon Etter and Head Coach Tom Crean were choked up when discussing the loss of one of the team’s primary leaders and contributors while offering prayers for the graduate student and his family.
The Dawgs opened the second half on a 7-1 run with buckets from Aaron Cook, Braelen Bridges, and Kario Oquendo which would increase the Georgia lead to 14 at a score of 39-25 with 17:08 left in the game. The Bulldogs did a great job handling the variety of defensive looks with which they were faced while cutting to space through Jacksonville 2-3 matchup zone and controlling the ball with poise against full-court pressure. Following a pair of Etter free-throws, a 3-Pointer from Tommy Bruner would trim the Georgia lead to 7 points with 8:35 remaining at a score of 49-42. The Dolphins would fail to pull any closer for the remainder of the evening, as ann ensuing wing 3-Pointer from Christian Wright would put the Bulldogs back up by a comfortable 10 points. A 6-0 Georgia run consisting entirely of free-throws, with conversions at the charity stripe from Cook, Oquendo, and Bridges, would give the Dawgs their largest lead of the night at a score of 67-51 with 1:24 to play. Georgia would hang on to secure the 69-58 victory.
The victory on Tuesday night brings the Dawgs to 4-5 on the season as the team heads into an 11-day break to study for final exams as the fall semester comes to a close. The team’s next game will be against George Mason University on Saturday, December 18th in Stegman Coliseum.