The University of Georgia Men’s Basketball team lost a heartbreaker to the Wofford Terriers on Sunday afternoon in Stegman Coliseum with a final score of 68-65.
Max Klesmit paced the Terriers offensively with 17 points while Jabri Abdur-Rahim led the way for the Bulldogs, scoring a career-high 20 points on 6-7 shooting.
Georgia came out of the gate hot and jumped out to an early 9-3 lead with buckets from Jaylin Ingram and Kario Oquendo as the team pushed in transition well and took advantage of easy opportunities. An ensuing 10-0 Wofford run highlighted by 3-Pointers from Ryan Larson and Luke Turner and spanning 4:47 would give the Terriers a 13-9 lead with 11:30 remaining in the half. Georgia would regain their lead after a pair of free-throws from Dalen Ridgnal with 8:02 left to play at a score of 16-15. The teams would battle back and forth over the next 5 minutes of action, and after 3 lead changes Wofford held a 28-24 lead with 3:04 to go in the half. A trio of 3-Pointers from Jabri Abdur-Rahim were the Dawgs’ only source of points during the remaining 3 minutes, and after an impressive Abdur-Rahim deep wing 3-Pointer off the dribble to beat the first-half buzzer, Georgia claimed a 33-32 advantage heading into the halftime intermission.
The disparity in the turnover category was the story of the second half for Georgia as the team would record 13 turnovers to Wofford’s 4. The Terriers capitalized on the opportunities presented by the UGA mistakes in notching a total of 20 second half points off turnovers. In terms of shooting, Georgia drastically outperformed Wofford in the second half as they converted on 14 of their 20 field goal attempts (70.0%) while Wofford shot just 40.7%. These two radical statistical differences balanced each other out and provided a tightly contested second half which ultimately came down to the last possession. A layup from Jaylin Ingram with 8 seconds remaining cut the Wofford lead to 2 points at a score of 67-65, and after a missed free-throw from Wofford, the Dawgs had a chance to send the game to overtime with a 3-Pointer. Unfortunately for Georgia, the last-second attempt was unsuccessful, and Wofford was able to secure the 68-65 victory.
Despite the loss, Sunday’s contest should be encouraging for Georgia Basketball fans who saw an incredible shooting display from the team’s most highly touted prospect, Jabri Abdur-Rahim. After a relatively slow start to the season, the sophomore transfer from Virginia oozed with confidence during his best individual performance of the year. He converted on 4 of his 5 3-Point attempts and impressed with his rebounding ability in traffic and over larger opponents. Both Tom Crean and teammate Jaylin Ingram mentioned that a performance of this caliber was inevitable for Jabri while praising his work ethic both in practice and in individual training.
The team will have a relatively quick turnaround as they prepare to face their first ranked opponent of the year and host #9 Memphis on Wednesday night in Stegman Coliseum.