Photo by Ted Mayer
Wednesday, November 25 at 5 p.m.
Stegeman Coliseum (10,523) in Athens, Ga.
TV: ESPNU (Mike Morgan, PBP; Chris Spatola, Color)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network by IMG (Scott Howard, PBP; Chuck Dowdle, Color) Flagship: AM 750; Sirius: 81
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The Starting Five
• Georgia won its only previous meeting with High Point, an 85-38 decision on Dec. 21, 2010.
• Georgia held High Point to just 20.7 percent shooting from the field, the lowest percentage ever by a Bulldog foe.
• Kenny Gaines was named SEC co-Player of the Week on Monday after his career-high and UGA record-setting 35-point outburst against Murray State last Friday.
• Charles Mann enters the game one point from No. 35 Rashad Wright and six points shy of No. 34 Bill Ensley among UGA’s career scoring leaders.
• Senior guards Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann both were tabbed first-team preseason All-SEC in voting of league coaches.
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Bulldogs Wrap Up Three-game Homestand To Open 2015-16 season
The Georgia Bulldogs complete a stiff three-game homestand to open their 2015-16 season on Wednesday when they host High Point. The Thanksgiving Eve contest will tip at 5 p.m., two hours earlier than Georgia’s traditional weeknight starting time, and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Bulldogs are 1-1 on the season, falling to Chattanooga in overtime in their initial outing and topping Murray State last Friday. The Mocs, Racers and Panthers all won 20 games last season. In fact, they combined to average nearly 25 wins (24.7) during 2014-15.
Kenny Gaines leads Georgia offensively at 23.5 ppg. He was tabbed SEC co-Player of the Week on Monday following his historic 35-point outburst against Murray State. Gaines provided 55.6 percent of the Bulldogs’ points, the highest percentage by a Bulldog for as far back as complete box scores for Georgia Basketball exist (beginning with the 1960-61 season).
Yante Maten is averaging a double-double of 12.0 points and 11.5 rebounds. The sophomore now has two double-doubles and three double-digit rebounding games in 34 career outings, all coming in the last five contests dating back to an SEC Tourney matchup with South Carolina last season.
J.J. Frazier rounds out Georgia’s double-digit scorers at 15.0 ppg and also has supplied nearly half of the Bulldogs’ assists to date (10 of 21).
High Point arrives in Athens at 3-1. The Panthers’ lone setback was a 77-73 decision at Texas Tech (and former Georgia head coach Tubby Smith) in the season opener.
Redshirt senior John Brown paces High Point in scoring (19.8 ppg), rebounding (7.5 rpg), blocks (2.0 bpg) and steals (1.5 spg). Last season, the Jacksonville native became just the fifth player to be named first-team All-Big South three times.
Lorenzo Cugini and Adam Weary also are scoring at a double-figure clip for the Panthers, averaging 13.8 ppg and 12.8 ppg, respectively.
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Keeping An Eye On…Entering Today’s Game:
Millennium point watch…
• Kenny Gaines is 63 points shy of becoming Georgia’s Basketball’s 46th 1,000-point scorer
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Among UGA’s career Leaders…
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Charles Mann is…
• 1 points from No. 35 Rashad Wright
• 6 points from No. 34 Bill Ensley
• 33 FT attempts from No. 2 Alec Kessler
• 77 FTs from No. 2 Litterial Green
• 41 assists from No. 10 Donald Hartry
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Kenny Gaines is…
• 5 3FGs from co-No. 10s Ty Wilson and Ray Harrison
• 16 3FGAs from No. 13 Ty Wilson
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J.J. Frazier is…
• 8 3FGs from No. 20 Katu Davis
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Series History With The Panthers
The Bulldogs defeated High Point, 85-38, on Dec. 21, 2010, at Stegeman Coliseum in the only previous meeting between UGA and HPU prior to today’s game.
Gerald Robinson’s 21 points led a parade of scorers for the Bulldogs. Trey Thompkins added 15 points, Connor Nolte chipped in a career-high 11 (on a perfect shooting night) and Dustin Ware rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10.
Georgia led by 10 points at the half and blew the game open with a 7-0 surge just after intermission. The Bulldogs scored 51 second-half points, which held up as a season-best effort in 2010-11.
The Bulldogs held High Point to just 20.7 percent shooting from the field in the game, a record for lowest field goal percentage by a Georgia opponent.
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Last Time Out
Kenny Gaines poured in a career-high 35 points leading Georgia to a 63-52 victory over the Murray State Racers last Friday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
Gaines blew the game open late by drilling a trio of 3-pointers to put the Bulldogs up 57-52. Gaines connected on 10-of-18 shots from the floor, including 7-of-10 from behind the arc. All four of those numbers also represented career highs for Gaines.
“Obviously Kenny Gaines had a career-night because he played within himself,” Mark Fox said. “He was very disappointed in his play the first game. It’s good to beat a very good Murray State team who is going to win a lot of ball games. That’s a good win.”
Georgia got off to a quick start in the first-half, building a lead as large as 19-9. The Racers slowly gained ground and eventually took the lead at 27-26 with just under a minute to play in the half. Gaines hit a 3-pointer to give the Dogs a 29-27 edge at the break.
Gaines poured in eight more points within the first three minutes of the second-half extending the lead to 36-31.
Stout defense from the Bulldogs held the Racers to just four points in the first eight minutes of the second period. Georgia held Murray State to just 27.6-percent shooting from the field in the second-half and only 30.4-percent overall on the night.
Still, the Racers grabbed a 50-48 lead with 4:11 remaining. Gaines then knocked down three 3-pointers in a span of just 1:52 to put the Bulldogs in control.
Georgia outrebounded the Racers, 47-37. Yante Maten hauled in a game-high 10 boards for the Bulldogs. In addition, forwards Mike Edwards, Kenny Paul Geno and Houston Kessler all grabbed career-high numbers in rebounds by pulling down eight, seven and eight, respectively.
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Gaines Earns SEC Honor
Kenny Gaines was tabbed as the SEC’s Co-Player of the Week on Monday morning, three days after his career-high 35-point outburst against Murray State last Friday.
Gaines shared the weekly honor with Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis.
Gaines’ performance against the Racers was one of the top single-game efforts in Georgia Basketball history.
The 6-3, 205-pound senior from Atlanta accounted for 55.6 percent of the Bulldogs’ points in their 63-52 victory, including 64.7 percent in the second half (22 of 34). That represents the highest percentage of team offense by a Bulldog as far back as complete records are available (beginning with the 1960-61 season).
He also equaled the No. 15 single-game scoring output by a Bulldog and also posted the No. 6 and No. 5 marks for 3-pointers made (7) and attempted (14), respectively.
Individually, Gaines, who was a first-team preseason All-SEC selection of league coaches, established career-high numbers for points (35), field goals made (10), field goals attempted (18), 3-pointers made (7) and 3-pointers attempted (14).
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Maten Continues Bigger Boarding
Sophomore Yante Maten has two double-double and three double-figure rebounding performances in 34 games played as a Georgia Bulldog. All of those have come in the Bulldogs’ last five contests dating back to last season.
Maten recorded his first career double-double with 13 points and 10 boards against South Carolina in the SEC Tournament last season. He opened this season with career-best tallies of 17 points and 13 rebounds versus Chattanooga before collecting a game-high10 caroms in the Murray State contest.
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More On Kenny Against The Racers
Kenny Gaines performance against Murray State on Nov. 20 represented just the eighth time a single Bulldog has scored half of UGA’s points in a game as far back as complete records for Georgia Basketball exist (dating to the beginning of the 1960-61 season) as outlined in the next column.
50 Percent Of UGA’s Points
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Player, points Game info
Kenny Gaines, 35 63-52, Murray St. (11/20/15)
J.J. Frazier, 37 72-66, Miss. St. (1/24/15)
K. Caldwell-Pope, 32 63-68, LSU (3/14/13)
Travis Leslie, 34 66-78, Vanderbilt (3/12/10)
Levi Stukes, 20 38-50, Florida (3/2/05)
Willie Anderson, 36 71-65, Florida (2/10/88)
Donald Hartry, 31 62-61, Miss. St. (2/8/86)
Dominique Wilkins, 33 64-58, Ole Miss (2/27/82)
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Georgia’s first OT Opener
Georgia’s overtime loss to Chattanooga on Nov. 13 represented the Bulldogs’ first OT opener in UGA’s 111 seasons of basketball competition.
The previous earliest OT action was in the second game of three campaigns. In 1905-06, Georgia’s first season of basketball, the Bulldogs lost to Georgia Tech, 12-11, in the second outing of a two-game schedule. In addition, Georgia defeated Tulane, 41-39, on Dec. 28, 1932 and TCU, 76-75, on Dec. 7, 1965.
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Career Highs From Chattanooga
Five Bulldogs notched career-high statistical performances against Chattanooga.
Most notably, Yante Maten’s 17 points, 13 rebounds and 40 minutes all were the highest tallies in his UGA career. Those topped last season’s 13 points against both South Carolina and Kentucky, 10 boards versus South Carolina and 29 minutes against Kentucky.
J.J. Frazier dished out a career-best eight assists, passes which resulted in 20 points. Coupled with his 22 points, Frazier had an immediate hand in 42 of the Bulldogs’ 90 points on the night.
In addition, Charles Mann’s four steals equaled his most-ever recorded versus Gonzaga last season; Houston Kessler and Kenny Paul Geno equaled their career highs with a single blocked shot; and Geno also logged a career-high 35 minutes, besting his previous most of 21 MP against Missouri last season.
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Return of The Mask
J.J. Frazier is playing with a protective mask on his face after suffering a slight nasal fracture in practice on Nov. 5, the day before the Bulldogs’ exhibition outing versus Armstrong State.
Frazier warmed up with the mask before the exhibition contest, but the decision ultimately was made to hold him out of action.
Last season, Frazier played six games with the protective mask after suffering a fractured orbital bone and concussion during a Feb. 14 matchup with Auburn. He missed Georgia’s next game and then played the final five regular-season contests and an SEC Tournament date with South Carolina before discarding the protective gear for the last two games of the year.
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All-SEC Tandem Has Strong Ties
Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann were both named preseason first-team All-SEC in balloting of league coaches, becoming just the second duo of Bulldogs to earn first-team preseason honors from league coaches since the recognition began prior to the 2004-05 season. Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins were also first-team selections prior to 2010-11.
Mann became Georgia’s first-ever two-time first-team preseason All-SEC selection.
The Gaines-Mann duo has played a significant role at UGA since they arrived on campus together in 2012. They have a combined 195 games played, 137 starts and 4,933 minutes played.
Much of that has been compiled together. Gaines and Mann both have been in the starting five for 60 of the Bulldogs’ 68 contests since the beginning of the 2013-14 season, and throughout their careers they have played 1,508 minutes and13 seconds together in Georgia uniforms. For the record, that’s 37 full games and 28:13 of another contest.
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A Challenging Non-Conference
Georgia’s 2015-16 non-conference slate will be both challenging and balanced. The Bulldogs’ 11 non-conference opponents averaged 19.3 wins last season and finished 2014-15 with an average NCAA rpi of 115.
“Our goal was a non-conference schedule that would put us in a proper position with the strength of schedule numbers at the end of the year,” Mark Fox said. “You never know what kind of season a team you play will have, but with the numbers from last year I think we’ve been able to establish the strength of schedule we need. It’s a little tougher numbers wise than it was a year ago. That’s important when you get to the month of March.”
Five of Georgia’s 11 non-conference opponents played into March last season: NCAA participants Baylor and Robert Morris, NIT quarterfinalist Murray State and CIT teams High Point and Oakland. Four of those teams will travel to Athens this season.
Last season’s average rpi of 115 is the best by Georgia’s non-conference foes since the Bulldogs’ 2001-02 non-conference foes recorded an average rpi of 111 during 2000-01.
Nine of 11 the Bulldogs’ upcoming non-conference foes ranked No. 153 or better in the final NCAA rpi for the 2014-15 season, and Georgia’s 2015-16 schedule includes only one team that finished a year ago with an rpi in the 200s.
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UGA’s Non-Conference Schedule
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Day Opponent 14-15 RPI
11/13 vs. Chattanooga 113
11/20 vs. Murray State 46
11/25 vs. High Point 91
11/28 at Seton Hall 103
12/1 vs. Oakland 171
12/4 vs. Kansas State 108
12/8 vs. Winthrop 206
12/19 vs. Georgia Tech 147
12/22 vs. Clemson 106
12/29 vs. Robert Morris 153
1/30 * at Baylor (SEC/Big 12 Challenge) 17