The Georgia Lady Bulldog basketball team notched its 12th straight season-opening victory on Sunday en route to a 95-56 win over Wofford at Stegeman Coliseum.
Freshman standout Que Morrison poured in a team-high 19 points in her first collegiate game. The native of Riverdale, Ga. scored the most points as a Bulldog freshman in a season opener since Tasha Humphrey against Furman in 2004.
“This has all gone beyond my expectations,” Morrison said. “Way beyond. I knew I was going to get the flow of the game I just didn’t know when. I think the second half is when my teammates got me going and we started to feel comfortable.”
Morrison was joined by Stephanie Paul, with 16 points, and her former McEachern High School teammate Caliya Robinson, who scored 15. The junior forward’s performance marks her 10th double-digit scoring performance in her last 12 outings.
[foogallery id=”117689″]
With two blocks on Sunday’s game, Robinson also ties Tasha Humphrey and moves to No. 10 all-time among Georgia’s career blocks leaders with 119. This comes just days after Robinson was tabbed for the award watch list named after another Lady Bulldog great, Katrina McClain.
Eight other Georgia players also registered points — including a total of nine in the first half alone. Five Georgia players tabbed double-digit games, with Taja Cole and Mackenzie Engram also contributing 13 and 10 points, respectively.
“They are going to be fun to watch,” head coach Joni Taylor said. “They are exciting. They play well together. You are going to see a lot of different combinations out there. Obviously, we have a lot of players who are putting up numbers. I think it makes for more competitive practices and gives us more confidence.”
Cole’s first points as a Bulldog came on a 3-pointer early in the first quarter to give the Lady Bulldogs a 7-4 lead, one they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Cole added another 3-pointer soon afterward on the way to a 13-2 run.
Wofford kept within striking difference, but Simone Costa’s 3-pointer with 0:05 left in the half moved the Georgia lead to 38-31 at halftime.
The Lady Bulldogs surged ahead in the second half, stretching the lead to as many as 24 points in the third quarter by holding the Terriers without a field goal for the last 5:03 of the period. Georgia upped its defensive effort further, capping off the first game of the 2017-18 season with 31 points off 21 Wofford turnovers.
Cole and four other newcomers chipped in a combined 45 points to charge the Bulldogs. They were freshmen Morrison (19), Maya Caldwell (5) and Gabby Connally (6), and redshirt junior Bianca Blanaru (Along with
Along with an all-time 36-9 record in season openers, Georgia’s 39-point margin of victory marks the largest in a season opener since the Bulldogs’ 50-point victory over Alabama State in 2008.
Up next, Georgia travels to Virginia to take on the Cavaliers Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.